This content was published on 02 February 2021 – 11:13
Dublin, Feb 2 (EFE) .- The Government of Northern Ireland confirmed on Tuesday that it has temporarily suspended physical controls on products of animal origin that arrive in the British province from the rest of the United Kingdom, given the proliferation of threats from groups unionist paramilitaries and the rise in tension caused by the vaccine crisis with the European Union (EU).
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (DAERA) meets with the Autonomous Police (PSNI) on Tuesday, after expressing concern about the safety of workers in the ports of Belfast and Larne.
In recent weeks, threatening graffiti has appeared in Protestant neighborhoods in the region – with the presence of loyalist paramilitaries – unhappy with the so-called Protocol on Ireland / Northern Ireland, one of the basic pieces of the EU Exit Agreement signed by London and Brussels.
Local authorities point out that there has been “an increase in sinister and threatening behavior”, with messages describing port workers “as targets”, which is causing them “a lot of anguish and fear” among the staff.
After the definitive divorce between the United Kingdom and the EU, the implementation at the beginning of the year of the aforementioned protocol has multiplied the bureaucracy at the points of entry to the province, which has caused supply problems and shortages of certain products in the provinces. Northern Irish supermarkets.
The growing tension reached its highest point last Friday, when the European Commission (EC) considered the possibility of imposing restrictions on the export of covid-19 vaccines in the region, unilaterally suspending the Protocol on Ireland / Ireland of the North.
This safeguard, the fruit of years of intense negotiations, is designed to allow the free movement of goods between the two Ireland and thus keep the border on the island open, key to their respective highly connected economies and the peace process.
In return, the EU protects the single market by imposing customs controls at ports on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain (Scotland, Wales and England).
To the discontent caused by the shortage of products is added the political unrest that the protocol arouses among the Protestant community, as it considers that it grants Northern Ireland a different status from the rest of the United Kingdom and endangers its relationship with London, at the same time that could give wings to the supporters of the reunification of Ireland.
The Northern Irish Chief Minister and leader of the majority Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Arlene Foster, has demanded that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson remove the protocol and negotiate a new arrangement with Brussels.
A DAERA spokesman explained today that they are “analyzing the situation” in the ports of Belfast and Larne, although, for now, only “document checks” will be carried out and physical inspections on products of animal origin, such as those containing meat, fish, dairy or eggs.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin warned on Tuesday that the situation in Northern Ireland “is very sinister and ugly”: “Obviously, we will do everything possible to help defuse the tension.” EFE
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