Tony Blair has urged the British government to drop its threat of unilateral action on the Northern Ireland protocol and called on the European Union to accept far-reaching changes to how the agreement works.
“It is in the interests of broader European harmony and trade – especially at a time when Europe, including the UK, has come together impressively over Ukraine – that both the EU and the UK show maximum flexibility in order to reach an agreement over Northern Ireland,” the former prime minister writes in a foreword to a new report on the protocol from his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
“My judgement – with long experience of EU negotiations – is that things have reached such a state of distrust that the two bureaucratic systems will not settle this; it has to be done at the highest political level because, ultimately, it is not a matter of technical work but political will and leadership.”
The report says there is a landing zone for an agreement between Britain and the EU based on a special “Northern Ireland approved” designation for goods intended for final consumption and sale in the North. Such goods would not be subject to checks as they move from Britain to Northern Ireland, but would have to be labelled “NI approved” and would be subject to a robust surveillance and enforcement system including spot checks at ports.
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The report also proposes new governance arrangements to avoid friction in the future as Britain diverges from EU regulations and for more consultation with British and Northern Irish representatives ahead of changes in EU rules that affect the North. It suggests that the arbitration mechanism of the Withdrawal Agreement could be extended to the trade-related parts of the protocol, removing the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The report’s author Anton Spisak, a senior fellow at the Tony Blair Institute and a former adviser to the British government on negotiations with the EU, said a change of approach was needed to secure a deal.
“Acting unilaterally will not only put the UK in breach of its international commitments, but it will also put a halt to any serious efforts to fix the protocol for a very long time,” he said.
“There is a viable compromise to be struck between the UK and the EU, but the key challenge is how to get there politically. Credible solutions are only possible with a change in the political attitude from both sides and a structured negotiating process to explore the viability of concrete solutions. The risk now is that the tactical posturing overtakes pragmatism, with the UK not accepting responsibility for the agreement that it negotiated and signed and the European leaders unwilling to signal more flexibility within EU rules for the unique circumstances in Northern Ireland. If this happens, the Protocol will remain a thorn in the side of their mutual relations for the years to come.”
The British government has promised to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to disapply the core elements of the protocol, despite warnings of retaliation from Brussels and criticism of the plan from Washington.
