Common sense must prevail over the Northern Ireland protocol

The UK is moving into a crucial phase of negotiations with the EU about the further implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol. On Tuesday the government’s negotiator, Lord Frost, will present in Lisbon a new proposed legal text of the protocol, which is expected to remove the role of the Europe Court of Justice in the case of disputes. Changes to the protocol have been demanded by the four unionist parties in Northern Ireland.

However, from a European perspective this is unlikely to be acceptable. The Irish minister for foreign affairs, Simon Coveney, has made it clear that while the EU is working to resolve the practical issues within the framework of the protocol, it will not be prepared to rewrite the terms of a deal that both sides had signed.

It was always going to be difficult to make the status of Northern Ireland – part of the EU customs area but also part of the UK – work in practical terms, quite aside from the drafting of the protocol. But it has become doubly difficult because of lack of trust between the two sides. It is the nature of all EU negotiations that they should be fraught. Most recently there was a hot debate over the EU’s emergency post-Covid recovery fund and in the past few days over Poland’s legal challenge over the supremacy of European law. So we should not be too surprised by current tensions between the UK and EU over Northern Ireland. With goodwill it should be possible to reach agreement. Sadly the fact that this problem should be fixable does not mean it will be fixed.

If the UK does take action to abandon the protocol, this will be most grave for the island of Ireland. It is almost unthinkable that a trading border between north and south might be re-erected, but history tells us that the unthinkable can sometimes happen. Common sense says that there must be a path between a radical rewriting of the protocol and applying it in a way that undermines the relationship between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. So we should hope that common sense will prevail.

But if this is serious for Ireland, it is equally alarming for the long-term relationship between Britain and Europe. The UK and EU are part collaborators, part competitors. They were to some extent competitors before Brexit took place, but they are more explicitly so now. The rivalry has advanced and is in danger of undermining the necessary collaboration. Eventually the relationship will reach a more stable balance. It has to. But meanwhile every further rupture, be it over trade in financial services, fishing rights, or this protocol, is a barrier across the path to a solid and harmonious friendship between like-minded nations.

The long term interests of EU nations and the UK are broadly aligned. We want the same sort of political and economic outcomes in an increasingly dangerous world. So it would be a tragedy if this current row over a legal document is allowed to escalate and to undermine cooperation on the many crucial issues faced by the continent of Europe, such as climate change, macro-economic stability, and promotion of democratic values.