View
comments
Brussels has accused the UK of seeking a 'path of confrontation' over Northern Ireland and fishing rights in the post-Brexit era.
Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic yesterday urged the UK's Brexit chief Lord Frost to reconsider the EU's proposals to reduce checks on British goods entering Northern Ireland.
'I am increasingly concerned that the UK Government will refuse to engage with this and embark on a path of confrontation,' he said.
Lord Frost meanwhile has claimed the EU has 'destroyed cross-community consent' with its overly strict enforcement of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which he believes is beginning to damage the Good Friday Agreement.
Such accusations come at the start of a week of fresh negotiations, culminating in a meeting between Sefcovic and Frost on Friday.
It comes as Emmanuel Macron announced France will introduce border and port blocks on British ships from Tuesday unless Boris Johnson is prepared to stand down in their bitter row over post-Brexit fishing.
Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic urged the UK's Brext chief Lord Frost to reconsider the EU's proposals to reduce checks on British goods entering Northern Ireland
Last month the UK and the EU put forward proposals to address the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was negotiated by Lord Frost. Frost has since accused the EU of 'destroying cross-community consent' by harshly enforcing the protocol
The Northern Ireland protocol was negotiated to avoid a hard border by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU's single market.
But unionists want it scrapped due to the trade barriers it has created on products crossing the Irish Sea.
Sefcovic, the EU's lead negotiator, said that talks over the protocol are at risk because the EU will only compromise its position so far.
He said: 'With the EU's package of enhanced opportunities from this October, we have gone the extra mile. But we have our limits, too, as we must protect the integrity of the EU's Single Market and the interest of the 27 member states.'
Meanwhile, Lord Frost said in a Policy Exchange think-tank paper published over the weekend that Brussels is behaving 'without regard to the huge political, economic and identity sensitivities' involved in Northern Ireland.
He declared the EU's operation of the Protocol 'has begun to damage the thing it was designed to protect - the Belfast Good Friday Agreement'.
'The insistence of the EU on treating these arrangements as like any
