The British government and the European Union have shown on Monday their first sign of rapprochement since the crisis created by London’s decision not to implement the protocol for Northern Ireland negotiated as part of Brexit, with both sides announcing a first breakthrough in negotiations to unblock the situation.
«While a number of key issues remain to be resolved in order to move forward, agreement was reached today on how to move forward on the specific issue of EU access to British IT (information technology) systems,» British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and European Commission Vice-President for relations with the UK, Maros Sefcovic, said in a joint statement.
The two men met in London, less than a month after their first face-to-face meeting in Brussels, when the parties already showed signs of understanding and a willingness to «intensify» negotiations to resolve this dispute inherited from Boris Johnson’s government, which legislated to prevent 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.
Now, the meeting between London and Brussels chief negotiators has been described by both sides as «cordial and constructive» and serves to mark the «shared commitment» to protect both the Good Friday Peace Agreement in the Ulster and the integrity of the European Single Market.
Monday’s agreement on data exchange was a «fundamental prerequisite» for building the necessary «trust» between the parties and providing assurances to serve as a «new basis for discussions» between the UK and the EU.
In this way, the negotiating teams will now be able to work quickly to identify possible solutions on the basis of a «renewed understanding», says the joint statement distributed by the British and EU delegations.
«We share the same approach: to find the best outcome for Northern Ireland. Today’s breakthrough on data sharing marks a positive step forward in the discussions,» Cleverly said via a message on Twitter accompanied by an image of his meeting with Sefcovic in which both appear in a relaxed and smiling attitude.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
