Lord Frost, a Brexit minister, tells the House of Lords that renegotiation proposals must be taken seriously by the European Commission.
The row over Brexit and Northern Ireland has heated up again, with the UK government warning the EU that it will not hesitate to unilaterally suspend the Northern Ireland protocol that Boris Johnson agreed to last year.
Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, told the House of Lords on Monday night that if the EU wanted to avoid the protocol collapsing, it needed to take the UK's proposals to renegotiate a part of it "seriously."
He claimed that his July command paper outlined the tests the UK would use to trigger article 16 of the protocol, which allows either party to suspend the agreement if it is deemed to have a significant impact on daily life.
“I urge the EU to take this seriously. They would be making a significant mistake if they thought that we were not ready to use article 16 safeguards, if that is our only choice to deal with the situation in front of us. If we are to avoid article 16, there must be a real negotiation between us and the EU.”
The Brexit minister spoke just days after his Brussels counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič, the joint head of the EU-UK partnership council, told the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to "dial down the rhetoric" after the DUP threatened to bring Stormont down over the protocol.
A renegotiation of the protocol, the European Commission vice-president said after a two-day visit to Northern Ireland, would only lead to more instability for businesses and communities.
Frost's comments demonstrate how poorly Sefčovič’s remarks were received in Downing Street, implying that the divide between the EU and the UK is widening.
“I was concerned by some of the comments we have heard from commission representatives in recent days which seem to suggest they may be considering this way forward [the take it or leave it approach],”
“If so, then with as much seriousness as I can, my Lords, I urge them to think again and consider instead working to reach genuine agreement with us so that we can put in place something that can last. Those negotiations need to begin seriously and they need to begin soon.”
Last week, the DUP, which is fighting to keep its voter base in Northern Ireland, issued an ultimatum to the EU, threatening to leave the Stormont assembly unless the protocol was seriously reconsidered within weeks.
The UK had announced a unilateral extension of a grace period for checks on chilled meats, including sausages, just days before.
On Friday, Šefčovič told reporters that the EU had reacted calmly and had decided not to pursue legal action in order to allow for dialogue.
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