The Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for relations with the United Kingdom, Maros Sefcovic, and the British Foreign Minister, James Cleverly, have reiterated on Monday their commitment to «collaboration» to unblock the implementation of the protocol for Northern Ireland that they negotiated as part of the Brexit agreements but that Boris Johnson’s government refused to comply with.
After a first gesture of rapprochement last week in London, when the two announced an agreement in principle to streamline the exchange of real-time data on freight traffic, Sefcovic and Cleveland have met again, this time by video call, and underlined the willingness to move forward.
Thus, in a joint statement, the EU and UK chief negotiators agreed that «the work of exploring possible solutions must continue in a constructive and collaborative spirit» and this «taking careful account of each other’s legitimate interests».
In doing so, they reiterated that they are aware of the «need to find solutions together» to address in a «comprehensive» manner the day-to-day concerns of citizens and businesses in Northern Ireland and preserve both the integrity of the European Single Market and the British internal market.
It is also the third contact in a month after their first face-to-face meeting in Brussels, when the parties already showed signs of understanding and the will to «intensify» negotiations to resolve this dispute inherited from Boris Johnson’s government, which legislated to avoid the application of the protocol.
The European Union then considered it «unacceptable» that London decided unilaterally to breach the agreement negotiated and also validated by the United Kingdom in the framework of the conditions of the relationship after the divorce from its EU partners.
The lack of progress in resolving the situation led Brussels to refer the United Kingdom to the Court of Justice of the European Union in February last year for non-compliance with an agreement that has the status of an international treaty.
The consensus of a week ago on data exchange was a «fundamental prerequisite» to generate the necessary «trust» between the parties and provide guarantees that serve as a «new basis for discussions» between the United Kingdom and the European Union, as Sefcovic and Cleverly explained at the time, in a gesture that was interpreted as a sign that they are on the verge of reaching a final agreement to resolve the dispute.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
