Insight
It takes two to tango: The EU and the UK need to work together to make the Northern Ireland protocol work by Sam Lowe, 2 February 2021
The European Commission’s aborted attempt to restrict vaccines moving from the EU to Northern Ireland risked undermining years of hard work. The EU must learn from its mistake, and ensure that the protocol works for the people of Northern Ireland. Last Friday (January 29th 2021) the European Commission introduced new export controls on vaccines leaving the EU. It was a reaction to AstraZeneca cutting the amount of vaccine vials to be delivered to EU over the coming weeks. But in doing so, the Commission brought the sustainability of the Northern Ireland Protocol – the special conditions that allow Northern Ireland to continue benefiting from the EU’s single market for goods and customs union – into question. Buried in the implementing regulation, the EU claimed that restrictions on goods moving between the EU and Northern Ireland could be justified by the protocol’s safeguard (Article 16) provisions and were necessary to “avert serious societal difficulties due to a lack of supply threatening to disturb the orderly implementation of the vaccination campaigns in the member-states”. The Commission’s action caught many by surprise – provoking an immediate backlash not only from Westminster, but also from the Irish government, the full spectrum of political parties in Northern Ireland, and, reportedly, the EU’s lead Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier. The decision to potentially restrict EU vaccine sales to Northern Ireland was illogical – at the moment, due to the UK’s superior vaccine procurement and roll out performance, it is more likely that vaccines will leak from the UK into the EU via Northern Ireland than the other way around. But worse: it was also reckless. The safeguard provisions in the protocol exist to be used in only the most extreme circumstances, and by triggering them almost as an afterthought, the Commission provided ammunition for those who want the British government to do the same in response to ongoing trade disruption – or simply scrap the protocol altogether. Such a response could see the protocol unravel rapidly, which would result in talk of a hard land border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and all the issues that come with it. The Commission’s action was all the more confusing when you consider that the protocol contains a consent mechanism, and it is in the EU’s interest for the current arrangements to remain popular in CER INSIGHT: It takes two to tango: the EU and the UK need to work together to make the Northern Ireland protocol work 2 February 2021
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