Prospects for North protocol deal ‘much more optimistic’, say MEPs

MEPs in Brussels have said the prospects of getting a deal on the Northern Ireland protocol have become “much more optimistic” in recent weeks since the appointment of a new government in the United Kingdom.

The British government is “now seeing sense and they want to come to an arrangement that will hopefully solve the protocol and the impasse in Northern Ireland and get the assembly back up and running,” Irish Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday.

“I think the fact that elections in Northern Ireland are postponed would tie into the vibes I got that this brinkmanship is hopefully coming to an end ... Now there’s a sense that something positive is hopefully happening,” Mr Kelly said.

Echoing his colleague’s comments, Fine Gael MEP Colm Markey said: “The mood in the room is now much, much stronger in terms of a willingness to move things along.

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“There will be those who are using the protocol as a political tool, and we want to avoid that becoming the central issue ... But I think certainly at Westminster level and EU level the dynamic is much more positive,” Mr Markey said.

After attending two days of talks on EU-UK relations in London this week, MEP Barry Andrews said the prospects of a deal on the protocol were “reasonably good” and the UK government was aware it “can’t afford any new headwinds in addition to the ones they already face”.

“If the Northern Ireland protocol Bill becomes law, you’re into a completely different space, and it’d be almost impossible for the EU not to escalate to either dispute resolution or specific tariffs against targeted UK goods, so you’re into trade-war territory. That’s the reality and the new Government is aware of that reality,” he said.

German MEP Bernd Lange, chairman of the International Trade Committee dealing with the Northern Ireland Protocol, said although there were no official negotiations ongoing at the moment, the “first contacts” the EU has had with the new UK government were “quite positive”.

“It might be that the new government is more realistic and sees that this problem should be solved because much more challenging problems are in the air. It’s just a feeling, my feeling is that they are willing to go on a different route than the previous government,” Mr Lange said.