This afternoon.
A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said Britain’s foreign minister Liz Truss has told European Commission vice president Maroš Šefčovič that the Northern Ireland protocol was “the greatest obstacle to forming a Northern Ireland Executive”.
According to the statement, the Foreign Secretary told Mr Šefčovič that the European Commission had “bore a responsibility to show more pragmatism and ensure the protocol delivered on its original objectives.”
Via RTÉ News:
The spokesperson said that Ms Truss had “reiterated that the UK’s proposals to fix the protocol, including green and red channel arrangements, backed up by a bespoke data-sharing system, would ensure the removal of trade barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland while protecting the EU single market.”
Ms Truss had said the current EU proposals would “take us backwards, by creating more checks and paperwork.”
The UK has signalled that it is preparing legislation to unilaterally dismantle parts of the protocol.
The DUP has said it will block efforts to establish a new Assembly and Executive unless the UK takes action to radically change the protocol, something the EU has said it will not do.
UK ‘no choice but to act’ if EU not flexible on NI Protocol – Truss (RTE)
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