UK must step up in Northern Ireland talks, says EU ambassador

LONDON — The EU wants “more engagement” from the U.K. in talks on the Northern Ireland protocol, said the bloc’s ambassador to the U.K, rejecting accusations that Brussels does not care about the sensitive situation in the region.

The EU and the U.K. remain far apart after months of intense technical negotiations on the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol, a key part of the Brexit divorce deal. Hopes are slim for a breakthrough at a key meeting next Wednesday between European Commission Vice President Maros Šefčovič and U.K. Cabinet Office Minister David Frost.

Speaking to POLITICO from a vantage point on the roof of the EU delegation, a stone’s throw from the Palace of Westminster, João Vale de Almeida said the EU “would like to have seen more engagement from the British side.” The talks cover nearly 30 issues from travel of pets and guide dogs, to checks on goods and VAT on used cars.

“This is like tango, it takes two to dance. For the moment, we think that the dance is unbalanced, we are dancing more than they are,” he said.

The protocol has sparked anger among the loyalist community in Northern Ireland, with unionist leaders calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to scrap it.

The two sides remain distant on most issues, including sanitary and phytosanitary checks on fresh food entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, one of the main sticking points. The EU has proposed a temporary Swiss-style veterinary agreement, which would mean the U.K. following EU agri-food rules and eliminate “80 percent” of checks on goods coming from the mainland, Vale de Almeida said.

However, London rejected this proposal and is pushing for an equivalence arrangement in which the EU would recognize British standards on food production as being equivalent to its own. British officials say they have engaged, but their proposals have been rebuffed by Brussels.

Taking no blame

Vale de Almeida firmly rejected any attempts to blame the EU for unrest in Northern Ireland.

The EU has already shown an exceptional degree of flexibility by “accepting to outsource to a third country the control of the external border of the single market” in Northern Ireland, he said.

Unless the Northern Ireland protocol is properly implemented, the EU’s external border in the region would be “open to a third country, which means open to the world,” he argued.

“Even in that sort of context, we accepted — because we are committed to peace, security and prosperity in Northern Ireland — this absolutely unique formula in which a third country is controlling that border with our cooperation and our systems. People should not forget the uniqueness of this situation.”

Since the Brexit vote, the EU showed “a sense of responsibility, maturity and adult attitude” to the negotiations with the U.K. — apart from, he conceded, the “three and a half hours” in January during which the Commission threatened to trigger Article 16 of the protocol to block exports of vaccines to Northern Ireland.

Frost has pointed to this moment as a turning point in the atmosphere in Northern Ireland. But Vale de Almeida said the EU has since “apologized profusely.” This error has been “blown out of proportion, amplified and magnified” by the Brits to justify the need for changes to the protocol, he said.

“I could not be more uncomfortable when I hear people say Brussels does not care about Northern Ireland,” he added. “Some people now are capable of saying ‘you’re putting the lives of Northern Ireland [citizens] at risk and the peace in Northern Ireland, but … I will not accept that.”

Citizens’ rights

The EU has launched a media blitz to encourage EU citizens in Britain to apply for residence status by June 30, the hard deadline set by the government for its EU Settlement Scheme, which guarantees their rights to live, work and access public services in the U.K.

On Tuesday, Vale de Almeida obtained a commitment from Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham that he would boost efforts to reach out to EU nationals and their networks in the region.

The Home Office has said those with “reasonable grounds” to miss the deadline will be offered extra time to apply. But Vale de Almeida is concerned about the large backlog of cases still to be decided, and about the potential consequences for those who fail to apply and cannot provide an acceptable justification to the Home Office.

The EU will also continue to keep a close eye on the treatment EU citizens receive at the U.K. border, Vale de Almeida said, following reports on the detention in immigration removal centers of tens of EU nationals who had fallen foul of the new British immigration rules or had been mistakenly detained when they were traveling for a job interview — a situation for which no paperwork is required.

The EU’s top envoy described these cases as “totally regrettable and unacceptable,” but he welcomed the Home Office’s decision to offer bail conditions to EU citizens for the duration of the pandemic.

Vale de Almeida also acknowledged not everybody within the EU institutions agreed he had to get involved in this issue.

“Some people may have thought that we should be more discreet about these issues because we should not attract all the responsibility or the focus to us when there is no clear competence on [the EU institutions] to do things. My approach is very different: we cannot ignore the citizens, we are here to defend the citizens, so I’ll be at the frontline of any case where I see that the rights of our citizens are not being upheld as they should,” he said.

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