EU urges UK to drop rhetoric in Northern Ireland dispute over Brexit | Britain’s exit from the European Union

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The European Union has urged the United Kingdom to drop “political rhetoric” in the row over the Brexit negotiations for Northern Ireland, revealing that it will present what it called “far-reaching proposals” to break the impasse next week.

European Commission Vice President Maros Ševović said at a conference in Dublin that he had a good relationship with Britain’s Brexit minister, David Frost, but that his threats to withdraw the Northern Ireland protocol were “not helpful”.

He confirmed that the European Union would complete its response to the UK’s demands to fundamentally rewrite the protocol “in the middle of next week” and then would engage in intensive talks to try to find a solution. “I think the package of practical solutions that we are putting on the table will be attractive…and I hope it will have the support of the majority of stakeholders in Northern Ireland.”

He also expressed the hope that the protocol would meet the interests of the unionist parties who are staunchly opposed to the protocol.

What the EU was trying to offer were “the best solutions, which would address the concerns of the union community,” Sifovic said at a webinar at Ireland’s Institute of International and European Affairs. But he warned that the EU would not back down to renegotiate the entire protocol just because the UK asked for it.

The protocol was the most difficult part of the withdrawal agreement to negotiate and involved the “best minds” from both sides over several years working to solve the problems Brexit had caused in Northern Ireland. He said the EU would not negotiate the protocol “as the United Kingdom requests”.

The committee has been working on counter-proposals to Lord Frost’s July leadership paper for the past month. Although Sevjovic declined to give details, they are expected to address UK concerns about food checks crossing the Irish Sea and barriers to drug supplies between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

However, it is unlikely to accept union demands that the role of the European Court of Justice should disappear. “I would like to say [they are] far-reaching proposals and I sincerely hope that our UK counterparts will view them as such and engage constructively in our discussion, because I think we have to sort of move [away] From the political rhetoric, from the threats, Shivovich said.

“You’re trying to do the most you have and what you hear from the other side is that it’s ‘not good enough’…those threats definitely don’t help.”

Šifovic said the bloc would use all options under the treaties to protect EU interests, but that there would be no hard limits if the UK ultimately decided to reject the protocol.

Earlier this week, Frost said he would study the EU’s proposals in good faith, but would only give talks three weeks before deciding whether to trigger Article 16, the mechanism for rejecting parts of the protocol.

He warned that the UK would act in a “strong” manner if the EU launched a retaliatory trade war if talks collapsed during the Article 16 process.

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