Boris issues Brussels new Brexit demand with major breakthrough on the cards

Brexit: Tory MP calls for end to Brussels ‘red-tape’

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

The Prime Minister is expected to sign an interim deal with the EU on post-Brexit access to medicines for Northern Ireland and put the rest of the unresolved issues with Brussels on ice until the May 5 Northern Ireland elections.

The EU Commission had already proposed a deal on medicines access in Northern Ireland in December but the UK Government had so far refused to agree on the ad hoc agreement until all issues were resolved.

The EU-UK Joint Committee will meet on February 21, the date the interim deal is expected to be agreed on.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic will attend the meeting.

The pair are also resuming talks in London this Friday.

It comes as the UK wants to see enough progress in talks with the European Union over the Northern Ireland protocol in the next 10 days to demonstrate to unionists in the province that things are moving in the right direction after they pulled out of government.

Northern Ireland’s first minister Paul Givan last week resigned in protest at the post-Brexit trade rules, potentially complicating talks between the EU and Britain to rework a politically divisive protocol that was agreed by London as part of its exit from the EU.

The move paralysed decision making in the province, which is set for elections on May 5.

Givan’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has indicated that, without progress on the protocol, they will not rejoin power-sharing arrangements in Northern Ireland’s assembly.

“If we can make a good step forward… to show there is a process that’s moving in the right direction, that would clearly be a positive thing,” a senior British government source said on condition of anonymity.

READ MORE: European banking crisis: Industry facing ‘atomic bomb’

“We’re not necessarily expecting to resolve everything in the next 10 days, obviously.

“This is probably going to be more of a process but that process needs to show unionism that it’s significant and actually moving in the right direction to resolve outstanding issues.”

The protocol kept Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods in order to preserve a politically sensitive open border with EU member state Ireland.

In so doing, though, it created an effective border in the Irish Sea, angering pro-British, pro-Brexit unionists in the province and spurring the British Government to seek to rewrite the deal it signed up to.

DON’T MISS:
Truss and Sunak tipped for huge tax U-turn [INSIGHT]
Brexit Britain hit with EU court case amid Northern Ireland talks [ANALYSIS]
Nicola Sturgeon faces backlash over pension plot [VIDEO]

Earlier on Wednesday, Boris Johnson said that London would take action to suspend post-Brexit customs checks on some goods moving to Northern Ireland if the bloc did not show “common sense”.

“We’re hopeful that in the next couple of weeks, we can get a big enough move from the EU, and they will truly recognise the urgency and significance of the situation, but clearly there are no guarantees,” the senior Government source said.

“There’s pressure on to get this resolved before going to the pre-election period at the end of March.”

Source: Read Full Article