Nothing ‘off the table’ for EU should Britain set aside parts of NI protocol, says Taoiseach

Nothing will be off the table for the European Union if the British government goes ahead with legislation to set aside parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.

He was speaking to journalists on Monday evening as he arrived at a special EU summit in Brussels, where discussions will be dominated by the war in Ukraine.

While Mr Martin played down suggestions that he would be briefing European colleagues on the margins of the summit about recent British threats to unilaterally abandon aspects of the post-Brexit protocol, he said he had “ongoing contacts” on the issue with the presidents of the European Commission and European Council, Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel.

Asked if he was confident Ireland would have the support of the EU should a trade war begin between the EU and UK over the protocol, the Taoiseach said: “We’ve experienced the utmost solidarity from our EU member states in respect of the protocol and the situation with regard to Brexit more generally.

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“Europe at this stage, we’ve said to the United Kingdom, that the EU is willing to take part in proactive discussions with the UK to resolve issues around the protocol. They can be resolved. And at this stage we’re not contemplating [a trade war], but nothing is off the table in respect of whatever actions the British government may take unilaterally,” he added.

“The UK government has indicated that it intends to implement legislation to circumvent the protocol ... We will await that eventuality. We’ve made our points very strongly to the British government that unilateralism does not work in this situation and negotiations can work in this situation if there is a will to resolve this on the UK government’s side.”

Interest in Brexit issues is waning in Brussels, Irish Government sources say, as the bloc’s attention is focused on the war in Ukraine and the fallout for EU member states.

Mr Martin said Ireland was “very strongly supportive” of a ban on the importation of Russian oil as part of a new round of EU sanctions against Moscow. He said the meeting would be “dominated by the war in Ukraine” and that there had been significant progress on agreeing a sixth round of sanctions against Russia in advance of the leaders’ meeting on Monday evening.

However, there are still objections from Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban to aspects of the proposed sanctions and there was no guarantee that EU leaders would reach an agreement on Monday.

Mr Martin also said he expected that EU leaders would agree to support Ukraine financially with direct contributions of up to €9 billion. He also said EU leaders would discuss global food security, which has been threatened as a result of the war in Ukraine.

“The global situation around food security is a big worry,” Mr Martin told reporters in Brussels this afternoon. “We are getting increasing warnings from the World Food Programme and others that we could be facing very serious issues around famine and food security towards the latter end of the year,” he said.

Asked about the accusations of Ukrainian protesters outside the summit venue, who accused the EU of squabbling over money while their compatriots died, Mr Martin said: “I understand the frustrations of Ukrainians ... but some countries are more dependant on Russian oil and gas than others, and the need to get consensus is an important one and to maintain unity. That said, I do believe there is an onus on all member states to ratify what has been concluded in the text.”