Mr President, it's the EU that broke the Good Friday Agreement, not the UK

With President Biden warning Boris Johnson, Facts4EU.Org summarises the unpleasant EU truth for the White House

It’s way past time the UK Government educated the World about the EU's distasteful conduct

Informing the World about the EU's vindictive 'Northern Ireland Protocol'
Part Two of a series of reports demonstrating the EU's true nature

The full series:-
Part One - The Protocol itself | Part Two - How the EU has threatened peace (this report) | Part Three - Irish Customs overruled by EU | Part Four - UK Customs stopped from solution by EU | Part Five - Trade involved is minuscule

According to The Times, Yael Lempert, President Biden's Chargé d’Affaires in the UK, has issued the Government with a démarche - a formal diplomatic reprimand - for 'inflaming' tensions over the Good Friday Agreement.

The US expressed its 'deep concern' about the UK's actions and behaviour in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

In addition, yesterday the French President, Emmanuel Macron, weighed in during one of his long press conferences at the Elysée Palace, on the eve of his visit to the UK to attend the G7 Summit in Cornwall today.

After his speech he was questioned by journalists. When asked about the Withdrawal Agreement and its N.I. Protocol, Monsieur Macron said:

“Nothing is renegotiable. Everything is applicable.”

It seems clear that France has no desire to see the N.I. Protocol work in practice and wishes to impose as much damage on Northern Ireland and on the United Kingdom as possible.

Governments worldwide need to be informed - and not by the EU

As long ago as last September we reported that the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, influential Democrat Nancy Pelosi, had launched an attack on the UK over the Government’s moves to protect the Good Friday Agreement between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Unfortunately Ms Pelosi’s statement betrayed a lack of understanding of the facts and of who is at fault, and this mistaken opinion has been allowed to persist across the Atlantic to this day.

The Good Friday Agreement is the bedrock of peace in Northern Ireland. If the U.K. violates its international agreements & Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord, there will be absolutely no chance of a U.S.-U.K. trade agreement passing the Congress. https://t.co/n7E4GHTJcI
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) September 9, 2020

The EU’s Withdrawal Treaty itself breaks the terms of the Good Friday Agreement

It must always be remembered that it was the EU which insisted on a 'Northern Ireland Protocol'. It did so despite other solutions being available, which were being advocated by the heads of Customs of the UK and the Republic, and by the expert report of the EU Parliament.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Facts4EU.Org presents some facts
of which neither President Biden nor Speaker Pelosi seem to be aware

We are quite sure that President Biden would not permit a foreign power dictating that Texas had to obey the foreign power's directives and laws, nor that all the other US States could not sell to Texas without going through extreme border checks for their products. As with any sovereign country like the US and UK, the maintenance of the free flow of trade within the country should be a given.

To prevent free trade within the UK is contrary to the 1800 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland and 1707 Articles of Union between England and Scotland
The EU's Withdrawal Agreement clearly alters the constitutional status of Northern Ireland within the UK
It amounts to a major breach of the core principle of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement
According to the GFA, NI’s constitutional status cannot be changed without the consent of the people of Northern Ireland

The EU weaponised and endangered the Belfast Agreement, threatening peace

Regrettably the EU colluded with the government of the Republic of Ireland to capture part of the sovereign territory of the United Kingdom, as part of its intended punishment of the people of the UK for voting to leave the EU. Any objective look at the facts demonstrates this beyond a doubt.

Our Irish border summary

It is a fact that the EU and the Irish Government prevented UK and Irish Customs from agreeing a simple border solution using technology and 'trusted trader status'.

”The Withdrawal Agreement clearly rips the Good Friday Agreement apart” – Lord Trimble, Peace Prize winner
The Irish border is only mentioned once – in passing – in the Good Friday Agreement (GFA)
The GFA does not require membership of the EU, Customs Union, Single Market [NI court ruling]
HMRC, Irish Customs, and the EU Parliament’s expert report all saw no problem & no hard border
The EU and the Irish government then prevented HMRC and Irish Customs from talking to each other
Brexit for Northern Ireland presents almost no risk to the EU or its Single Market
N.I.'s exports over the border account for under 0.25% of total EU imports

It is worth reading what one of the two main architects of the Belfast Agreement, The Rt Hon The Lord Trimble PC had to say on what the EU has done. Lord Trimble received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work leading to the Good Friday Agreement, so his words carry weight.

The EU's Withdrawal Agreement breaks the Good Friday Agreement
Says Nobel Peace Prize Winner - and one of the two main architects of it

“The Withdrawal Agreement clearly rips the GFA [Good Friday Agreement] apart.

“Since the laws governing 60 per cent of economic activity in NI will no longer be made at Westminster or by the devolved Assembly, but by an outside law-making body, the EU, and those laws will be subject to interpretation by a non-UK court, clearly the constitutional position of NI has been changed without the consent of the people of NI as required by the GFA.

“Furthermore, there is no way in which the people affected by those decisions will even have a say in the making or application of them.”

- The Rt Hon The Lord Trimble PC, 11 July 2020, CBP Report

The sheer nonsense of the EU's position

The EU’s Withdrawal Treaty requires the imposition of tariffs between the UK and Northern Ireland where these goods could be deemed to be at risk of being exported south to the Republic of Ireland. Furthermore it requires stringent checks on many goods including food products such as burgers and sausages - even if they will be consumed in Northern Ireland - to ensure they meet EU standards. As a result of the Protocol, it is EU standards which must be applied, by EU law, in what is supposed to be a sovereign part of the United Kingdom. Regardless of this unreasonable imposition by the EU, the UK's standards are already identical to the EU's. It is therefore a non-issue, but the EU insists on making it one.

As the distinguished barrister and EU law specialist Martin Howe wrote in the Daily Telegraph last year:

Martin Howe QC, writing in the Telegraph

“International law does not justify a later treaty to which these community representatives are not parties being used to over-ride the rights they enjoy under the earlier treaty, especially where it involves over-riding such a fundamental right as the right to self determination of the people of NI.”
“If there were any doubt that Parliament has this right, section 38 of the Withdrawal Agreement Act preserves Parliamentary sovereignty and makes it quite clear that Parliament has the right to pass the clauses which the government is proposing and thereby override these errant clauses in the Protocol.”
“The EU has a long history of disregarding adverse rulings by WTO disputes bodies, for example on subsidies to Airbus. The ECJ itself in a case called Portugal v Council decided that it should not give any direct effect to the WTO Agreements under EU law, because that would force compliance with the WTO obligations and so have the consequence of depriving the EU’s legislative or executive organs of the possibility entering into negotiated arrangements.”
“The Protocol sets out the clear principle that NI is part of the customs territory of the UK, so goods should be allowed to flow from Great Britain to NI without tariffs. There are provisions for the UK authorities to levy EU tariffs on goods which are “at risk” of crossing the open border into the EU. The problem is that the circumstances in which goods are to be treated as “at risk” are not defined in the Protocol, and joint agreement is needed with the EU on the rules which would define this.”

Selected excerpts from the article by Martin Howe QC

Part 3 (tomorrow): The EU has deliberately manufactured a problem which barely even exists

In yesterday's edition of Facts4EU.Org we published our 'Protocol Primer', which contained the key text of the Protocol. In tomorrow’s (Saturday) edition we will publish devastating testimonies from senior figures in the official bodies running the Republic of Ireland’s and UK's Customs and Excise, together with a damning quotation from the EU officials revealing how the EU negotiated with the UK.

The harsh evidence we shall publish makes clear the agendas of the Irish Government and the EU, over Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement.

In a subsequent report we will also show that the entire issue of the Northern Ireland border has been manufactured by the EU over an amount of trade so tiny as to be irrelevant to them.

Observations

It is essential that the truth about the whole issue of the Northern Ireland border is in the public domain. We find it simply extraordinary that the UK Government seems unable to communicate this.

Whilst some of this fiasco may be down to the usual Remainer civil servants being unwilling to present any case which shows the EU in a bad light, this cannot explain the complete absence of any debunking of some of the statements from the EU and by some UK Remainer politicians who have never accepted the democratic result of the UK's EU Referendum. These statements have been influencing opinion around the world, as can be seen by the statement by the US House Speaker Pelosi and by President Biden's actions last week in issuing a démarche to the UK Government.

This could be seriously damaging to the UK’s economic prospects and to its reputation

For years we have publicly lamented the appalling performance of the Government’s various communications departments, in ever more strident terms. We even offered to assist them, if they needed facts to back up Government statements and press releases.

It is wholly unacceptable that the Speaker of the House of Representatives has taken a position – from which she will find it very difficult to row back – that no UK-US trade deal will be approved by Congress if the UK Government acts to protect the integrity of the Union and the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement.

Facts4EU.Org were the first to publish a condemnation of the draft Withdrawal Agreement when it first surfaced, and we condemned it repeatedly all the way up to the slightly revised version signed by Boris Johnson in January 2020.

We are where we are, but the abomination that is the Withdrawal Agreement and Northern Ireland Protocol does not preclude the most strenuous efforts from being made to clean it up so that it does not irreparably damage the tortuous peace process which led to the Good Friday Agreement.

TOMORROW

In Saturday’s edition of Facts4EU.Org we will publish the next part of this summary on Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement. You do NOT want to miss the devastating evidence we present against the EU.

Finally, we need your help. We have far more to do in researching, publishing, campaigning and lobbying Parliament than we have in terms of the financial resources to fulfil these tasks. We rely 100% on public donations from readers like you. Unlike the pro-EU camp, we do not have foreign billionaires to subsidise our work.

If you believe in a fully-free, independent, and sovereign United Kingdom, please make a donation now. It’s quick, secure, and confidential, and you can use one of the links below or you can use our Donations page here. And you will receive a personal, friendly ‘thank you’ from a member of our team within 24 hours. Thank you so much if you can help to keep us going in these critical months ahead.

[ Sources: The Good Friday Agreement | The Withdrawal Agreement | The Elysée Palace | CBP | Martin Howe QC article, (Chairman, Lawyers for Britain) ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Fri 11 Jun 2021

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Reader Comments 11

1. Tom and Anna, Warks , Friday, June 11, 2021, 06:33:

I only wanted to say that this is turning into a cracking series. Please keep going and we're looking forward to your report tomorrowe. We've sent you a little something as encouragement!

2. One eyed king , Friday, June 11, 2021, 06:39:

The American people no longer have the stomach to support terrorists, since 9 11.
This was the main point of gfa. Come to the table or the hypocrisy could not be ignored.
Many of my friends told me Ireland was their worst tour, and they had walked all our recent battlefields. We were lied to about our removal from the eu, this is one of their vectors to bring us back to the milking shed. We have never had a trade deal with America, just trade. And their position is tenuous amongst their people. They are the giant who is awakening.
The snivel serpents allowing this should practice sleeping with one eye open, because as my friends hold testament to dangers of occupation of British people, one must only imagine trying to sort us all out, my mind harks back to childhood when listening to the fans of my local team chanting "your going home in a f##king ambulance".
Time to get a grip Boris and good luck

3. Ann Silva , Friday, June 11, 2021, 07:09:

Wakey wakey, sleepy Joe!

4. Michael Wood , Friday, June 11, 2021, 08:08:

I always said this will end in war! See no reason to change my mind. Europe as a whole is heading for bloodshed due to unfettered immigration of violent people.

5. Tim B , Friday, June 11, 2021, 09:00:

This headline is untrue or at best misleading. It was the U.K. government who broke the Good Friday agreement by agreeing to and introducing the Protocol to Northern Ireland without the consent of the people of Northern Ireland.
The Good Friday agreement requires the consent of the people before constitutional changes are made to their standing within the U.K. and the Protocol certainly does do that. This issue is currently being considered in the High Court of Northern Ireland.
I agree that the EU have rigorously enforced the Protocol heightening tensions in the province but the fundamental problem lies with the Protocol itself.

6. Sal, Herefordshire , Friday, June 11, 2021, 10:13:

With respect Tim (comment 5) it was the EU that manufactured the need for this protocol. I agree that the government should never have signed it but thast would never have happened if May hadn't acquiesced to almost everything the EU wanted. The Boris government post-Dec 2019 were dealt an appalling hand and did what they could at that stage. I still wouldn't have signed and this site's editors clearly say they wouldn't either but the principal blame lies with the EU for insisting on this rubbish in the first place.

7. Margaret mcMaster , Friday, June 11, 2021, 10:27:

The British government agreed to scrap the gfa and illegally install the illegal protocol the EU Irish GOVERMENT caused it the USA GOVERMENT added there threats of a no trade deal with the UK an the Tory's rolled over an played dead again all are responsible in the own sick an twisted ways means an threats

8. One eyed king , Friday, June 11, 2021, 10:39:

It is designed to scupper brexit and all who signed it are on board.
The trees are diminishing, and the wood stands clearly

9. Amos Greig , Friday, June 11, 2021, 10:56:

The Irish Sea Border was always the PREFERRED option of the BRITISH government and that was Before the Referendum had been called they studied the potential ramifications, they even got several different groups of economists to look into it. Still much easier to blame the EU than accept the complete lack of transparency of the Conservative Party or those who helped draft the Protocol in the first place..
https://publications.parlia... You might want to read this and check the dates the NIAC 2016.17 report came up with the idea of a Protocol to protect NI's economy in the event of Brexit and all the EU insisted on was that the UK deliver the Protocol that the UK itself came up with. Current membership at the time was the following:
Mr Laurence Robertson MP (Conservative, Tewkesbury) (Chair)
Tom Blenkinsop MP (Labour, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Oliver Colvile MP (Conservative, Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Mr Nigel Evans MP (Conservative, Ribble Valley)
Mr Stephen Hepburn MP (Labour, Jarrow)
Lady Hermon MP (Independent, North Down)
Kate Hoey MP (Labour, Vauxhall)
Danny Kinahan MP (Ulster Unionist Party, South Antrim)
Jack Lopresti MP (Conservative, Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Dr Alasdair McDonnell MP (Social Democratic and Labour Party, Belfast South)
Nigel Mills MP (Conservative, Amber Valley)
Ian Paisley MP (Democratic Unionist Party, North Antrim)
Gavin Robinson MP (Democratic Unionist Party, Belfast East)
Powers
The committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers
of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in
SO No.152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk

10. sharon Wales , Friday, June 11, 2021, 18:42:

The EU = worlds biggest ponzi scheme. Let's face it, if and when the EU implodes, it will impact the rest of the world. Hence why Biden is siding with them.
But why should the UK be used as a pawn. We are the victim and were conned into paying more and more with each Treaty. The EU and its fat,
avaricious bureaucrats , who are seemingly, much more media savvy than the UK. They portray themselves as the victim and the walking wounded. We must retaliate and play them at their own games.. In truth it should be easy as the EU has so many faults, it should be so simple to scupper them. But we just need the media on our side.

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