The EU will do its utmost to protect peace in Northern Ireland, says EU Vice-President Maros Sefcovic

By Q Radio News

The European Commission’s vice-president Maros Sefcovic has said “the EU will do its utmost to protect the peace in Northern Ireland” as he arrived at London St Pancras for negotiations.

Mr Sefcovic will be meeting minister Michael Gove to resume discussions about Article 16, which overrides part of the protocol preventing a hard border in Ireland.

On his arrival in London on Thursday afternoon, he said: “The EU is absolutely committed to making the protocol work, and we see this as the only way to protect the Good Friday Belfast Agreement protecting peace, stability and prosperity for the island of Ireland.”

🇪🇺🇬🇧 Arrived in London to meet @michaelgove on implementation of the Protocol on IE/NI
👉the EU fully committed to protect peace in NI & make the Protocol work
👉its implementation is a 2-way street
👉a constructive solution-driven coop needed w/ the Joint Committee to meet asap.

— Maroš Šefčovič🇪🇺 (@MarosSefcovic) February 11, 2021

He said the implementation of the protocol is a “two-way street”, and he hopes that a date can be set for a “joint committee meeting”.

Mr Sefcovic added: “It was always clear that the beginning of the implementation of the protocol could be challenging as a direct consequence of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, and we are ready to look into these teething challenges while respecting the objectives of the protocol.”

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster said she regrets that the European Commission’s response to concerns about the NI Protocol “is more protocol and more rigorous implementation”.

“I think that that is not going to work, however we will await to see what happens at the meeting later on this afternoon between Michael Gove and Maros Sefcovic,” she told the Executive press conference in Dungannon.

She responded to Taoiseach Micheal Martin’s call for cool heads by saying she hoped it was directed at “his colleagues in the European Union bloc”.

“There has been an attitude of sticking the head in the sand and fingers in the ears in relation to the concerns of not just my party but every single unionist politician who is opposed to the protocol so therefore there needs to be an engagement that recognises that,” she said.

Stormont Finance Minister Conor Murphy said he hopes issues are ironed out to enable businesses to do what they need to do.

“We were always very clear when Brexit was voted through, it was going to cause disruption, in our view the protocol helps to mitigate against that. We need to make sure it works properly in the way it was intended,” he said.