The worrying differences between Downing Street claims and the EU asserts, ... trends now
Rishi Sunak’s deal has been hailed as finally getting Brexit done. However, ANDREW PIERCE has discovered worrying differences between what Downing Street claims – and what the EU asserts...
CLAIM: Northern Ireland politicians will be able to block new EU laws
REALITY: The PM said they would be able to do this using a device called the Stormont Brake. The British team shrewdly ensured the brake can be pulled only if the DUP has returned to power-sharing in the Northern Ireland assembly – an incentive for the DUP to agree to return to government. But in its own document on the agreement, the EU says the brake can be deployed only against amendments and updates to existing laws, rather than new legislation from Brussels.
And then, only when the ‘amended or replacing EU act, or a part of it, significantly differs in scope or content from the previous one and... would have a significant impact specific to everyday life’.
In other words, as the EU says, it is to be used only ‘in the most exceptional circumstances and as a last resort’.
What is more, if a law is rebuffed using the brake, the EU can retaliate by submitting a claim to the British government for any perceived financial loss. Who would arbitrate on that figure?
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced the newly-agreed deal this week
CLAIM: Deal removes ‘Irish Sea border’
REALITY: Border checks will be reduced for goods sent from Britain to Northern Ireland, rather than eliminated, as the PM suggested. This will be achieved by the use of ‘green lanes’ with minimal checks for goods destined to remain in the Province and red lanes with customs for those heading for the Republic of Ireland or on to other EU countries.
It is true checks will be cut to five per cent by 2025. And the EU says goods from Britain that stay in Northern Ireland will ‘see an unprecedented reduction’ in checks. Crucially, however, it adds there is not a ‘full eradication’. One Tory MP said: ‘Sounds to me like there is still a border in the Irish Sea.’
Importing British goods freely into Northern Ireland has been problematic up to now
CLAIM: The ban on sausages is over
REALITY: Under Boris Johnson’s original protocol rules, a number of food products deemed high-risk by the EU – including fresh sausages – were banned from entering Northern Ireland. Now, sausages – along with seed potatoes, sandwiches,
