By Patrick Daly, PA Political Correspondent
The European Union introduced more than 800 new pieces of regulation impacting Northern Ireland without notice, UK Cabinet Office officials have claimed.
Brexit minister David Frost told peers that the development showed the EU was failing to take “seriously” that it was making laws “for another territory” after Brexit.
The comments come after the UK Cabinet Office said Brussels sprung an update on it that more than 600 new measures impacting upon Northern Ireland had been adopted by the bloc in the past three months, with a further 200 in the pipeline.
The Northern Ireland Protocol is aimed at avoiding a hard border within Ireland by effectively keeping the North in the EU’s single market for goods, meaning it continues to follow some EU rules after Brexit.
Working group
As part of the UK’s divorce deal with the bloc, the Joint Consultative Working Group was set up in order to give businesses in Northern Ireland advance notice of regulation changes related to the Protocol.
However, peers on the Lords Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland Sub-Committee were told on Wednesday that the EU gave the working group a list of 800 new regulations without prior warning, with more than 600 already agreed by Brussels.
Rebecca Ellis, director of the Northern Ireland/Ireland Unit in the UK Cabinet Office, said efforts to ensure the working group gave advance notice on changes was “still not there”.
“We had what you might call a ‘drop’ of new measures last Thursday which included a list of over 800 measures, I think 666 of which had already been adopted,” said the official.
“And in many respects there was no more information provided than what you could read in the official journal.”
Mr Frost confirmed those details when raised later by Conservative peer David Hannon, announcing it to be a “problem” in the current set-up.
“Obviously the Joint Consultative Working Group is supposed to give us advanced warning – if all it’s doing is giving us what’s in the official journal in some other form, then there is not really a lot of point in it,” he said.
“It needs to give some upstream warning and I think the way it is working at the moment is a bit indicative of – how should I put it? Not taking entirely seriously that the EU is legislating for another territory – these are laws that are imposed on another territory without a process.
“I think the least that can be done is to give some advance warning of that, some understanding, some chance to feedback and consult, and that’s not really happening at the moment.”
The former MEP and Brexit campaigner Mr Hannon replied: “It seems to me, prima facie, to indicate a striking lack of goodwill and good faith.”
New balance
During the session, Mr Frost – who negotiated Britain’s EU exit – refused to comment on whether the Protocol was “fit for purpose”.
He argued, as he has done so previously with Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis, that both sides need to strive for a “new balance” in the post-Brexit terms.
Asked whether the Protocol was fit for purpose he said: “I’m not sure I would characterise it that way or make a judgment on that point.”
Pressed on why he would not take a stance, the Cabinet minister replied: “Because we need to find out – and that’s what we’ve been trying to do over the last few months – whether it is possible to operate these arrangements in a way that gives a different balance.
“That is the kind of discussion we have not had with the EU, but would like to.”
