European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
This afternoon.
Who triggered Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol without consulting Dublin?
Via Tony Connelly at RTÉ News:
…Several well-placed sources are of the firm view that the text was drafted by an official within the UK Task Force, ie, Michel Barnier’s team.
…The sources say this was not a collective effort by the Task Force, and that Barnier himself, and his chief advisers who were involved in both the Withdrawal Agreement and the recently concluded trade negotiations, were not in the loop.
As such, the belief is that the individual who drafted the text did so at the direction of Ms von der Leyen’s cabinet.
However, another senior Commission source strongly denies this suggestion…
…Whoever was involved at the last minute on Friday, the first Dublin found out about the paragraph was when it broke in the media, around 4pm Irish time. Senior officials in the Department of the Taoiseach had been working on the travel issue when phones began going off…
The vaccines, the Commission and the NI Protocol: What went wrong? (Tony Connelly, RTE)
Bertie Wooster arriving in 3…2…1…
The joys of unaccountable bureaucracy. It’s bad enough that we have a shower of morally flexible idiots in charge domestically in Dublin. But there is a different shower of seemingly unidentifiable of idiots in Brussels telling them what to do. Or in this case, not telling them.
Sure it will be grand.
Increment by increment national democracy is slowly been seeded without the consent of the public to the European Union.
should we leave then, john f?
No, but there needs to be public discussions in the dail with a lot more transparency and accountability. Domestic politicians love this current arrangement, because they can blame all unpopular decisions on outside EU institutions.
Being realistic, we are not going to leave the EU. It’s far more likely that one of the big players will eventually. Italy is the most likely.
There needs to be greater public discussion and debate on the increasing federalisation of the EU. If most people are okay with it, then fair enough. However, I along with many others have dislike the secretive nature of what’s unfolding now.
Unfolding now ?
It’s always been like that, right down to your local MEP who doesn’t have to provide receipts for any of their generous expense allowance which is never audited.
If that happens among the worker drones imagine the size of the trough the burghers of Brussels have their snouts in.
Are they not being made accountable now and asked to explain themselves?
so basically Barnier is fulla ..1t
Corporal Hindsight of the Ist Regiment of the EU Brown-nosers(Brussels) Division covering his backside after missing the scoop first time round.
I remember the night in question – the UK media were all over it while Toady Connelly was late to the story.
He still doesn’t know whose fault it is.
No-one does.
And that’s the real problem.
No accountability.
03/10/09 and all that.
Thank goodness you’re back. Maybe there might be actually some comments around here now. And it’s very lucky that your Arch Nemesis Joe F is online at the moment too! Stars aligning.
and yet if the uk could negotiate a proper trade deal with the eu it wouldn’t end up with these kinds of clusterfupp:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/02/beekeeper-stung-by-post-brexit-ban-and-threat-to-burn-15m-bees
Blatant misuse of the NI rules
Phil the Flute (kudos, Paulus) rubbing his hands and things with glee.
Any smoke signals from Annie Oakley yet?
Hah; ya need a lot of detail to make something like that work though.
Methinks the Brits left an agent in Brussels to set off a landmine here and there in the wake of the great retreat.
Relax, there’s a spinach for that now.,
https://news.mit.edu/2016/nanobionic-spinach-plants-detect-explosives-1031
Are Brussels sprouts the puppets of Pudding Island?