MADRID, 8 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Irish Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney, has warned this Sunday that the European Union could suspend the agreement that regulates the commercial relationship between the bloc and the United Kingdom after Brexit if the British activate Article 16 to suspend the Protocol of Ireland from the North, as they have threatened.
“One (agreement) is subordinate to the other, and if one is left aside, there is a danger that the other will also be left aside by the EU,” the minister said in statements to the Irish network RTE.
The suspension of the commercial relationship between the EU and the United Kingdom, although it would have to be notified twelve months in advance, would have devastating consequences on the British economy, according to the country’s industrial leaders.
Even so, the British Government would already be working in a scenario that contemplates the application of Article 16, which allows suspending the Protocol, before Christmas, according to the British newspaper ‘The Telegraph’.
The Northern Ireland Protocol prevents controls at the border with the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU bloc, after the United Kingdom left the European Union.
This implies, however, that there are controls on products that arrive from the rest of the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland, which according to the British Government creates a new border between this region and the rest of the country.
Despite everything, Coveney has argued that the EU is “in a way to find solutions”, and that it has shown “enormous flexibility” in drafting a report that solves many of the problems of the implementation of the Protocol in Northern Ireland.
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