EU must learn ‘serious lessons’ from North controversy, says Minister

The European Commission must learn “serious lessons” from its actions last Friday, a Government Minister has said, as the fallout from the controversy continued over the weekend.

Brussels announced plans on Friday to use article 16 of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, which allows for special safeguard measures to be taken by either the UK or EU in exceptional circumstances, to prevent a "back door" on its plan to limit shipments of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine to Britain.

The commission subsequently reversed the move following condemnation from London, Dublin and Belfast.

Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne said he hoped “serious lessons will be learned” in the commission following the firestorm caused by the move, which Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster described as “an incredible act of hostility”.

Mr Byrne said: “The commission will do well to very closely look at how they interact in Northern Ireland. “This could happen again and we have to make sure that no mistakes with regard to Northern Ireland or any unilateral action with regard to Northern Ireland happen again.”

Less guarded

Privately senior Government figures are less guarded in their criticism of the controversy, with several fiercely critical of the move by the commission.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said governments had been “blindsided” by what happened on Friday and that he had been given no advance notice by the EU.

“The commission issued a public announcement on the issue and that’s when we first became aware of it,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday.

Mr Martin said he articulated the “very serious implications” the move would have to Ms von der Leyen and welcomed the reversal.

European commissioner Mairéad McGuinness said there had been very justified anger and political fallout over the issue, but “in my experience of commission decisions this type of mistake doesn’t happen –that it is a one-off”.

She added, however, that “the normal and proper scrutiny didn’t happen”.

“I’m afraid the political reality of the paragraph wasn’t understood,” she told the RTÉ This Week programme. But some Government sources were privately critical of Ms McGuinness for failing to alert the commission and the Government of the political sensitivity of what was being proposed.

Backdoor into Britain

When it was put to her that some in the commission see Northern Ireland as nothing more than a backdoor into Britain, Ms McGuinness said “that’s absolutely wrong”.

“What happened is there was a rush to get this regulation out and sometimes when things get rushed the detail is not fully taken on board,” she said. “But it is fully taken on board now. The commission will fully reflect internally.”

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds echoed calls from Ms Foster over the weekend for the Northern Ireland protocol to be replaced due to difficulties in the trade flows between the North and Britain. He said the EU’s mask had “slipped” in its move on Friday.

Mr Dodds said the EU had lectured against a hard border on the island of Ireland throughout the Brexit negotiations but then in one “swoop” it was prepared to erect one.