Analysis. Briton Michael Gove was one of the linchpins of the referendum campaign to leave the European Union (EU) in 2016. From mid-2019, in Boris Johnson’s government, he ensured the preparation of the Brexit, co-chairing the “Joint Committee” responsible for setting the Northern Irish protocol to music. This crucial part of the divorce treaty with the EU is intended to preserve the 1998 peace agreement and prevent the return of a border between the Republic of Ireland (EU member) and Northern Ireland , UK province.
Yet it is the same Mr. Gove who, on February 8, denounced a protocol “Which is not working at the moment” and accused the EU of having “Opened Pandora’s box” by briefly suspending the application of the protocol ten days earlier. And it is also he who called for the extension of a “grace period” until January 2023, without customs controls for a series of products transiting between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Enough to feed the hard-line discourse of the DUP, a North Irish Unionist party (in favor of maintaining the United Kingdom), which demands that the protocol be purely and simply abandoned.
False step of the European Commission
Since December 31, 2020, the date of implementation of Brexit (and of the establishment of a border in the Irish Sea, Northern Ireland remaining in the European internal market for goods), port traffic between He Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK fell (between 30% and 50% less volumes at the end of January, compared to January 2020). Many companies complain about the complexity of customs declarations to move goods to the ports of Belfast and Larne.
But these difficulties have nothing to do with the enormous blunder of the European Commission, on January 29, which in a moment of panic, attacked on its questionable management of vaccine purchases, and on the pretext of wanting to control their exits from it. ‘EU, has considered reintroducing controls on the island of Ireland. This reckless decision hurt the image of the institution, but it quickly recognized its error and backpedaled.
Government still refuses to shoulder the consequences of Brexit and tries to hide reality from the British
The brakes on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland are in reality mainly the result of Brexit, a lack of anticipation and a late implementation of the Northern Irish protocol.. “We did not receive the specifications for the customs declarations of the packages until December 31, 2020, the companies did not have time to prepare”, Sarah Hards, of the North Irish transport company AM Nexday, said during a parliamentary hearing on January 10.
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