MPs say Northern Ireland Protocol is ‘untenable’

A Committee of MPs have found the Northern Ireland Protocol to be “untenable” if it is not “repaired, replaced, or removed”.

Analysis published today by the European Scrutiny Committee of the European Commission’s 2022 Work Programme, which outlines the EU’s law-making priorities for the coming 12 months, identified no fewer than 29 proposals which Northern Ireland will or most likely will have to follow in the years ahead. Importantly, these laws would be made with little or no input from the UK Parliament.

The Commission’s listed priorities potentially impacting Northern Ireland include: subsidy rules; product standards; environmental regulations; supply and approval of medicines; regulation of trade; and taxation and duties.

Under the Northern Ireland Protocol, a compromise in Brexit negotiations that kept the border on the island of Ireland open while offering protection to the EU single market, Northern Ireland must continue following EU rules and regulations for goods.

Should UK and EU law diverge, Northern Ireland businesses could find themselves in the difficult position of having to understand, monitor, and follow two sets of rules, depending on the origin and destination of the goods they are trading.

MPs on the Committee are concerned that there is little that can be done if the UK Government were minded to reject the proposals while the current form of the Protocol remains.

The European Scrutiny Committee conducts regular analysis of new and proposed EU laws and the impact that they would have on Northern Ireland, trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, and trade between the UK and the European Union.

The report’s analysis of the supply of medicines from Great Britain to Northern Ireland raised concerns that the compromise package offered by EU negotiators to the UK to ensure medicines in GB are available to people in Northern Ireland could see access to new drugs approved in the UK removed from NI after 6 months if they are not also authorised in the EU in this time.

The Committee also highlights the possibility that the proposals may constrain the UK’s ability to choose its own rules and regulations on medicines.

• They also said that both the EU and the UK give developing countries preferential, often tariff-free, access for goods to their markets. However, after Brexit businesses in Northern Ireland importing from qualifying countries will now need to look out for two sets of rule changes, the first by the UK later this year, and the second from the EU in 2024.