Northern Ireland Protocol remains a 'constitutional obscenity' despite claims of progress: TUV

Following a meeting of the Specialised Committee on the Implementation of the Windsor Framework in Brussels on Friday, the joint EU/UK group said they “welcomed the adoption by the EU of legislation in the areas of agri-food, medicines, tariff rate quotas and customs”.

Details of the Windsor Framework were published in February this year.

It was an agreeement drafted by the UK and EU to address political and commercial concerns that the NI Protocol post-Brexit trading arrangements were undermining Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and hindering the free movement of goods.

The latest announcement from the EU also said the committee co-chairs "took stock of the work undertaken by both sides on the implementation of the Windsor Framework” since the last meeting in London.

In recent weeks, the Council of the European Union said the new regulations being progressed “will make it considerably easier to move a range of goods from Great Britain into Northern Ireland if they are destined for final consumption there”.

Refering to the regulations around agrifoods, plants and pets, the Council said: “In practice, the new rules regarding sanitary and phytosanitary measures, which protect animal, public and plant health, will make it possible to move agrifood retail products from Great Britain to Northern Ireland for end consumption there with minimal certification requirements and controls, once the agreed safeguards have been put in place.”

Timothy Gaston of the TUV has said the latest reports of progress should not be mistaken for a “magnanimous gesture” for the benefit of the people of Northern Ireland.

"Today’s announcement by the Specialised Committee merely underscores the fact that the Protocol is unreformable and must go,” the Bannside councillor said.

"It is shocking that decisions on animal and plant health issues and medicines are not made by our own country but decided in consultation with EU bureaucrats.

"Far from representing progress, it graphically underscores the democratic and constitutional obscenity which is the Protocol.

“Those who claim otherwise expect us to welcome it as some magnanimous gesture from our colonial overlords.”

Cllr Gaston added: “For as long as Northern Ireland is subject to foreign laws we do not make and cannot change – and dictated to by people like Maroš Šefčovič who is accountable to no one in Northern Ireland – the current situation will be intolerable.”

Earlier this month, the Council of the European Union said: “The movement of certain plants for planting, based on a special plant health label, will become easier, as will the movement of agricultural machinery. The ban on seed potatoes will be removed.

“Travelling with pets from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will become possible with a simple pet travel document, a microchip, and a declaration by the owner that the pet will not travel to the EU.”