Northern Ireland: meeting at the castle to relaunch the London-EU discussions

With a meeting in a castle and a new negotiator, the British government on Thursday 13 January relaunches its discussions with the European Union on the post-Brexit status of Northern Ireland, urging Brussels to

after months of deadlock .

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In charge of this explosive file since the sensational resignation of British Brexit David Frost in December, Foreign Minister Liz Truss receives European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic until Friday. For this first face-to-face meeting, she chose the sumptuous Chevening Castle as the setting, the country residence of the British foreign ministers on the outskirts of London. On the menu: a very regional dinner Thursday evening, with smoked Scottish salmon, Welsh lamb and Kentish apple pie, but above all major issues: safeguarding peace in Northern Ireland and avoiding a trade war between London and Brussels, just one year after their effective divorce.

The British want to renegotiate in depth the protocol on Northern Ireland giving birth in pain as part of the UK's exit from the EU.

What Brussels refuses, offering only improvements.

This text, effective since early 2021, confers a special status on the British province by maintaining it in the single market and the European customs union.

The aim is to prevent the return of a physical border with neighboring Ireland which would risk weakening the peace concluded in 1998 in Northern Ireland with a bloody past.

"A pragmatic approach"

De facto creating a border in the Irish Sea, this protocol foresees customs and phytosanitary controls for the goods delivered by Great Britain to Northern Ireland, which according to the British causes difficulties of supply. The text, which is one of the main sources of tension between London and Brussels since Brexit, also angered Northern Irish unionists, attached to maintaining Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, who saw it a threat to the integrity of the country.

Calling for

, Liz Truss assured that she herself would propose

, with in sights a

, in a press release published before the encounter. But in a column published over the weekend by the right-wing newspaper

, the head of diplomacy also waved the stick, denouncing the

of the protocol on a daily basis:

necessary to send packages from Grande -Brittany to Northern Ireland,

for pets ... It has set its red lines: no controls on goods between Great Britain and the province, and no arbitration role in disputes for the Court of Justice of the EU.

And warned that in the event of failure of the talks, it would not hesitate to trigger Article 16 of the protocol, a safeguard clause allowing certain provisions to be suspended.

At the risk of provoking severe commercial retaliation with which the Europeans threaten.

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For Joao Vale de Almeida, the EU's ambassador in London, the British threats are

.

, ”he insisted on Sky News on Sunday. The European Commission has insisted, via its spokesperson Daniel Ferrie, on its determination to find

order to

.

For European Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness, Ireland, it is very important that the two sides reach an agreement before the elections in early May to appoint a new local assembly in Northern Ireland, which could upset the fragile political balance. between unionists and republicans.

The European executive recalled having proposed in October to significantly ease controls on a wide range of goods intended for Northern Ireland's sole consumption and not entering the European market - an effort then deemed insufficient by London .

He also proposed in December measures to ensure the continuity of the supply of drugs in the long term.