How the EU deliberately weaponised peace in Northern Ireland

Proof : EU has prevented a Northern Ireland border solution for four years

For the EU this has always been political – it’s about punishing the UK
For the Irish Government this has always been about pursuing a united Ireland

Part Two of a Facts4EU.Org special on Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement

First we cover the unfolding events overnight regarding the Government’s proposed new actions
Secondly we show how the EU deliberately weaponised peace in Northern Ireland over four years
Finally we briefly cover the EU's latest hostile moves against the UK

1. The beginnings of a belated Brexit Fightback

Boris Johnson, writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, has finally come out fighting and has explained the Government’s stand on the Withdrawal Agreement, the Northern Ireland Protocol, and the threatening behaviour of the EU, as we and a great many readers urged on Thursday and yesterday.

This follows the (in our view deliberately) appalling performance by the Remain-voting Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Rt Hon Brandon Lewis MP, in the House of Commons on Tuesday when he said that the action of the Government “does break international law in a very specific and limited way.”

The Prime Minister’s article this morning – albeit produced many days later than it should have been – at least redresses the balance somewhat. We comment further on the political aspects in our ‘Observations’ below this article.

The pro-Remain civil service are at it again

It is now clear that senior civil servants have been complicit in a rear-guard Remainer action. Here is an anonymous non-Remainer civil servant writing in Briefings for Britain yesterday:-

“Let’s not mince our words – the Northern Ireland Protocol is all about politics. It was cooked up by the EU in cahoots with a fervent Remainer May government and civil service to negate the result of the Brexit referendum. It had absolutely nothing to do with protecting the Good Friday Agreement nor with ensuring there was no hard border in Ireland.”
“Ever since [the WA] was ratified, the EU, Remainer officials and judicial activists have been trying to warp its interpretation to include all the unacceptable elements of the old backstop. The role of the civil service in this is deeply troubling (one cannot go into detail here), but Whitehall officials have been fighting a rear-guard action with ministers ever since January in a bid to keep the UK legally subordinate to the EU through the new Northern Ireland Protocol – regardless of the consequences for the Union or the economy and people of Northern Ireland.”
Briefings for Britain, 11 Sept 2020

Fortunately not all civil servants are anti-democratic Remainers

The highly-respected former British ambassador to the United States and to Germany, Sir Christopher Meyer, posted the following Tweet yesterday:

Intl law is here a red herring. The problem is political not legal: the failure of the EU to negotiate in good faith the future relationship, with the result that, absent an agreement, NI becomes by default a gateway for EU law into GB, unless Parliament takes preemptive action.
— Christopher Meyer (@SirSocks) September 11, 2020

2. Some of the ways in which the EU deliberately weaponised peace in Northern Ireland

Devastating testimonies condemn Irish Government and EU, over NI and Brexit

For four years the EU and the Irish Government have prevented UK and Irish Customs from agreeing a straightforward solution for the Irish border question.

It was clear from the outset that - as a result of the EU Referendum - UK and Irish customs authorities would have to discuss and agree new arrangements for the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Existing border arrangements on the Irish border have always been ‘different’

Given the relatively open border since the 1990s, special arrangements have already existed for many years. There has always been a border in Customs and Revenue terms because of the two countries’ different tax regimes, different excise duties, different VAT rates, and even different currencies.

Here is Mr Niall Cody, Chairman of the Board of the Irish Revenue Commissioners, giving testimony to a Committee of the Irish Parliament in 2017. He was asked about existing arrangements for controlling the border and gave the details for the previous year.

“The vast majority of these checks were carried out in approved warehouses and other premises with a very small number at a port or airport. The low level of import checks is the result of pre-authorisation of traders, advance lodgement of declarations and an extensive system of post-clearance checks, including customs audit, which are carried out at traders' premises.”
“Authorised economic operators, AEOs, have a special status in the system and under agreed protocols are allowed to operate greatly simplified customs procedures. There are currently 133 AEOs, which account for 82% of all imports and 89% of exports. It will be very important that the bulk of trade continues to be through AEOs after Brexit.”
- Niall Cody, Chairman of the Board of the Irish Revenue Commissioners, testimony in 2017

So why didn’t Irish and UK Customs get together to agree to extend existing border arrangements?

It is clear from the testimonies of the most senior Customs officials on both sides of the border – the department heads with the expertise – that they were prevented from talking to each other by the EU and by the Irish government.

“We are not in any form of negotiation or even having any discussion with the UK at this point.”
- Liam Irwin, then Irish Revenue Commissioner
Q: “Could Mr. Cody clarify whether there is a legal impediment to negotiations between us and-----“
Niall Cody (Chairman of Irish Customs): “Yes.”
Q: “-----so we can have discussions but not negotiations?”
Niall Cody : “The European Union will be negotiating with the United Kingdom in regard to Brexit.”

- Senior Irish Revenue officials, testimony to the Dáil committee in 2017

And here is what the UK Customs boss said in evidence to a Parliamentary Committee

“There are no formal conversations with either the French or the Irish. We cannot talk to Customs or taxation management organisations in either of those countries.”
"We do not believe we require any infrastructure between Northern Ireland and Ireland under any circumstances."

- Sir Jon Thompson, former Chief Executive of HM Revenue and Customs, giving evidence to the Exiting the European Union Committee, 29 Nov 2017

Sir Jon went on to say that discussions with the Irish Revenue had started, but were halted – and not by the British.

There is no real quantifiable risk to the EU’s Single Market

Northern Ireland’s goods sales across the border are so small they will amount to a rounding error in the EU’s accounts, post-Brexit.

After Brexit, NI’s cross-border sales will account for just 0.23% of total imports into the EU. [Sources : Eurostat | HMRC | NISRA ]

0.23% is NOT any kind of threat to the integrity of the EU’s Single Market.

Click to enlarge chart - © Brexit Facts4EU.Org

Finally, here are two EU Parliament officials

Two years ago two officials who work for Guy Verhofstadt, then the EU Parliament's Chief Brexit Coordinator, were caught on camera when Mrs May caved in:-

Official One: "We got rid of them! We kicked them out! It took us two years but we managed.”
Official Two: "It's done! On our terms and conditions. We finally turned them into a colony and that was our plan from the first moment.”

- Officials working for Guy Verhofstadt, EU Parliament Brexit Coordinator, caught on camera by BBC4 documentary

3. The EU’s latest hostile moves

In a statement issued yesterday, the EU Parliament says it will block any trade agreement with the UK

They have issued this threat before the supposedly sovereign UK Parliament has even had a chance to debate the draft Internal Market Bill, in effect dictating to Parliament what decision it must make on behalf of the British people. Here is an excerpt:

"Should the UK authorities breach – or threaten to breach – the Withdrawal Agreement, through the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill in its current form or in any other way, the European Parliament will, under no circumstances, ratify any agreement between the EU and the UK."

And here is Boris Johnson's response

Writing in the Daily Telegraph today, the Prime Minister was unequivocal about the EU’s latest hostile actions.

Boris Johnson, 12 Sept 2020

“We are now hearing that, unless we agree to the EU's terms, the EU will use an extreme interpretation of the Northern Ireland protocol to impose a full-scale trade border down the Irish Sea.

“We are being told that the EU will not only impose tariffs on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, but that they might actually stop the transport of food products from GB to NI.

“I have to say that we never seriously believed that the EU would be willing to use a treaty, negotiated in good faith, to blockade one part of the UK, to cut it off, or that they would actually threaten to destroy the economic and territorial integrity of the UK. This was for the very good reason that any such barrier, any such tariffs or division, would be completely contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.”

Observations

If the EU and the Irish Government had been remotely interested in preserving the Good Friday Agreement and peace in Northern Ireland, what would have been more logical than for the civil servants responsible for each side of the border to discuss new arrangements?

Instead, the Irish side has been banned from doing so. This was a deliberate act.

A quick solution to alternative arrangements for the NI border, sorted out by those who know the most about it - the Customs teams on each side - was not in the EU’s interests. The EU wished to use the border as one of their three pre-emptive issues to prevent trade being talked about and to keep at least part of the UK in the Single Market and Customs Union. In this, they have succeeded to this day.

And what of the Irish politicians involved in this?

The EU had a willing partner in this subterfuge in the form of the fiercely nationalist Irish government of Messrs Varadkar and Coveney.

Despite a 'no deal' Brexit being catastrophic for the Irish economy, it is our opinion that they put their own political considerations above the interests of their own people, and effectively weaponised this issue. In so doing, they have been played by Brussels. It remains to be seen if the Irish people will ever forgive them.

What next?

It is not before time that the UK Government is finally fighting back against the tirade of propaganda from the EU which has been played worldwide in the complicit, globalist media in most countries, as well as on our TV screens in the UK. As regular readers know, we have been urging a communications effort from the Government. Finally it seems that these efforts have borne fruit, to some extent.

Far more needs to be done, on a daily basis. The EU's propaganda machine is relentless.

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Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sat 12 Sept 2020

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Reader Comments 22

1. Sydney Ashurst , Saturday, September 12, 2020, 06:44:

Note what Sir Christopher Meyer said - 'the failure of the EU to negotiate in good faith the future relationship'
The WA did not comply with this requirement of Article 50, and it has been signed off
Could the validity of the WA be legally challengeable.

2. tell the truth , Saturday, September 12, 2020, 06:49:

twaddle to excuse the fact the the UK has broken International law of a treaty that is lodged at the Untied Nations

3. Fool some of the people , Saturday, September 12, 2020, 07:08:

You do not know how the EU works, all trade talks are dealt with by the EU not individual member countries. In openly admitting that it signed the withdrawal agreement with the EU in bad faith, Johnson’s Vote Leave government also implicitly confessed that it lied wholesale to the electorate in December’s general election.
“We have got a deal, oven-ready, by which we can leave the EU in a few weeks. It’s a great deal for this country. It delivers everything that I wanted when I campaigned for Brexit”
Boris Johnson, speech launching Conservative Party election campaign, Downing Street
So he's ether a fool who dd not know what he signed or a proven liar?

4. Derek P, Warks , Saturday, September 12, 2020, 08:49:

Yet another excellent article which shows up the EU for what it is, a bully only after its own ends. No other country in the world would put up with this treatment.

5. Theresa's Pimple , Saturday, September 12, 2020, 08:54:

I do wonder what motivates the people who STILL cheerlead for the EU!
How anyone can want to be a part of a club like that, I simply cannot understand.

6. Catherine, Dollar , Saturday, September 12, 2020, 09:00:

What sort of friend is it that devises an agreement whereby it can turn an ex-member (which voted democratically to regain its full sovereignty) into a colony?
And now threaten to cut Northern Ireland off from the rest of GB? Destroy our entire agriculture sector (according to one Ms Adler of the BBC)

7. wes , Saturday, September 12, 2020, 09:09:

Any-one who has bothered to read "Adults in the room" by Yanis Varoufakis will recognise the tactics being played by the EU negotiators.
What an unscrupulous bunch they are.

8. Andy , Saturday, September 12, 2020, 09:23:

Comment 6, Catherine. Totally agree. In fact I would go as far as to call the EUs actions a ‘hostile act’. I’ve come to the conclusion that they want the worst relations with the UK, possibly short of War. I never agreed with Boris signing the Withdrawal Agreement, and I agreed with the opinion that the UK should have simply left the EU and not invoked article 50. But we are where we are and a way forward is to repudiate the Withdrawal Agreement in its entirety.

9. Ashley Great Britain , Saturday, September 12, 2020, 09:48:

@2 tell the truth.
Your second to last word.
Yes your right! We will be UNTIED from these EU nations!
Come hell or high water we will be free!

10. Peter Salisbury , Saturday, September 12, 2020, 10:03:

"sir" Bob Neill is a disgrace, ok he voted to remain AND voted with grieve against his party so why the hell is he not a libdem as he's certainly not a Tory

22 comments, page 1 of 3

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