EU’s elasticity tested in response to Britain’s demands on North protocol

The EU vice president in charge of Brexit negotiations does not exactly have a name that trips off an Irish tongue, but Maroš Šefčovič will be as household a name in Ireland as Michel Barnier by the end of 2021.

Yesterday Šefčovič delivered the EU’s response to Britain’s increasingly implacable and unreasonable demands to axe the Northern Ireland protocol - which its prime minister, Boris Johnston, approved. It’s like a punter asking for his money back after the nag he backed came in last.

The former Slovak diplomat has a good turn of phrase, and it helped when he laid out the EU's response to Britain's demands on the protocols, as Naomi O'Leary and Jennifer Bray report.

There were major concessions by the EU in the four papers unveiled, and these really tested the elasticity of EU sovereignty to its outer limits.

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Šefčovič laid out what the EU did in a manner that would go down well in rural Ireland. “We have completely turned our rules upside down and inside out,” he said.

“If I’m talking about an 80 per cent reduction in checks, about half of the customs formalities to be reduced, about express lanes, about all really bespoke solutions, I think that it’s quite obvious that we are really doing our utmost. And I hope that this will be reciprocated by our UK partners.”

Will it? It’s unlikely. Dominic Cummings has been a baleful influence on the process, even after being sacked by his erstwhile sponsor, Boris Johnson.

Over the last 36 hours he entered the fray – uninvited – with a series of provocative tweets that claimed those behind Johnson intended to get a deal through and then “ditch bits we didn’t like”.

The risible comments prompted harsh criticism from Leo Varadkar who said, if true, Britain had “acted in bad faith” during the negotiations. That was something, he said, that needed to be heard around the world as Britain begins to attempt striking post-Brexit trade deals with other countries.

The ‘in-bad-faith’ line was interesting as it was repeated – but in reverse – by Micheál Martin when responding to the European Commission proposals.

He said: “The Commission, acting in good faith, has today invited the UK government to work with it on these proposals, which it has said are a basis for discussion”.

That set up an interesting dichotomy, signalling who the good guys were in the negotiations. The EU Commission has stood firm on the European Court of Justice. At the press conference in Brussels, Šefčovič pointed out that the British first raised it only in July, many months after the deal had been signed.

Britain’s Brexit negotiator, David Frost, is another implacable sort. It’s one thing to play hard-ball but quite another for Britain to potentially renege on an international deal in such a manner.

Covid concerns put full reopening in doubt

What is happening with Covid-19? We have a high vaccination rate, yet three times in the past week, we have recorded in excess of 2,000 cases per day.

As we report this morning a further 2,066 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the State on Wednesday.

“Additionally, 5,306 deaths related to the virus have now been recorded, with an additional 26 deaths in the last seven days.

“As of 8am on Wednesday, 408 people are in hospital with the virus, of which 69 are in ICU.”

How is this happening? We have one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe yet one of the highest rates of Covid in the Union. There are still 300,000 unvaccinated adults out there, and we also have more complicated inter-generational households. We are also close to the UK where incidence is high.

Moreover, double vaccination does not mean full protection - there have been cases of breakthrough infections. And also the under-12s have also been getting Covid in greater numbers than before.

All this is laid out in a great explainer by Paul Cullen.

What does it mean politically? Certainly the Taoiseach and Tánaiste are concerned. October 22nd has been marked as the day for the reopening of society.

Yet Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar indicated this might no longer be a locked-on certainty, given the numbers are going the wrong way.

Best reads

Miriam Lord's column is on the meteor shower that occurred within the Dáil, otherwise known as Mary Lou McDonald, letting the sparks fly.

Naomi O'Leary has a comprehensive backgrounder on how the EU Commission paper offering concessions to the UK on the Northern protocol came into being.

Cormac McQuinn and Jack Horgan-Jones report that Taoiseach Micheál Martin defended sending Ministers to the church service in Armagh, saying it was in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

Cormac McQuinn has a quirky piece on 10 budget items you might just have missed.

Simon Carswell explains the significance of the EU's latest proposals on the Northern protocol.

The EPA has told the Oireachtas agriculture committee that nitrates, nutrients and chemicals leaching from Irish farms is chiefly responsible for increased levels of pollution in over 1,000 Irish rivers, lakes and water courses.

Playbook

Micheál Martin and Mary Butler, Minister of State for Mental Health, unveil mental health agency Jigsaw’s Organisation Strategy at 11am.

In the Dáil, the budget will be debated for a third day. Almost everybody will have their say.

The housing committee is looking at the issue of water infrastructure and water quality. Representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency will address the committee.

The environment and climate change committee is examining the Circular Economy Bill.