Lord Frost emphatically wins Round One – EU changes N.I. Protocol and renegotiates after all

EU de facto admits its Protocol is unworkable, changing so much it’s almost unrecognisable

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2021

From “there will be no renegotiation” to “start of a period of intense discussions” - in just 12 weeks

Yesterday in Brussels, EU Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič set out radical changes to the EU’s deeply flawed and unworkable Northern Ireland Protocol, even admitting that the new package goes “beyond current EU law”.

The unelected rulers of much of the trade activities and lifestyle conditions they imposed over the citizens of part of the United Kingdom announced a set of sweeping changes to their failed Protocol. This occurred only 12 weeks after dismissing Lord Frost’s Command Paper proposals in July which strove to put things right.

Today, EU officials are rushing to London to start “intense discussions” with UK officials and on Friday they will be closely followed by the EU Commission’s Vice-President, who will hold talks with Lord Frost.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The EU's volte-face

FROM:

“We will not agree to a renegotiation of the Protocol.”
- EU Commission statement 21 Jul 2021

TO:

“The Commission now stands ready to engage in intensive discussions with the UK government”
- EU Commission statement 13 Oct 2021

IN ONLY 12 WEEKS

Is the EU’s defeat yesterday dramatic? Yes. Is it yet complete? No.

The EU has in effect admitted that its application of the Northern Ireland Protocol has been very damaging on the people of Northern Ireland, their businesses, and the businesses on mainland UK attempting to deliver everyday products there. If this were not the case, why does the EU deem such radical changes to be necessary?

Lord Frost has previously stated that the conditions for the UK to invoke Article 16 of the Protocol, suspending some or all of its provisions, have been met. Yesterday the EU’s statement, speeches, and accompanying documents they issued issued now prove this beyond question.

The EU elephant trampling over the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement for peace

Facts4EU.Org could at this point dismantle the EU Commission’s latest proposals and we will certainly do this when resources allow, and hopefully before too many MPs are taken in by what the EU is now offering.

To do so now, however, would be to miss one fundamental point.

That fundamental point is of course sovereignty. The simple fact is that Northern Ireland now exists as a de facto colony of the European Union, subject to its laws and to the rulings of the ‘European Court of Justice’ – possibly one of the most political courts outside of African dictatorships and Russian or Chinese regimes.

As so often, the best way to illustrate this is by example. Can our American - or indeed UK or EU - readers imagine any circumstances in which the US Government would allow Mexican law to be imposed in Texas, or California? Can they imagine the Mexican supreme court being the final arbiter over legal matters in those US States? And can they imagine Texans and Californians having no ability to vote on those imposing the law on them?

This is currently the position in part of the United Kingdom – Northern Ireland.

This is NOT a problem “caused by Brexit” as the EU claims, but by the EU itself

Yesterday the EU continuously referred to “the difficulties that people in Northern Ireland have been experiencing because of Brexit.”

None of the troubles caused by the EU’s insistence on its demonstrably-failed Protocol would exist if it had not weaponised Northern Ireland, starting in 2017, in pursuit of its punishment agenda against Brexit Britain. Almost all the EU’s proposed changes announced yesterday would not have been necessary if the EU had simply let the Revenue and Customs authorities on both sides of the border do their jobs.

The heads of each of these organisations, for the UK and for the Republic of Ireland, publicly stated to their respective parliaments that they saw no problem caused by Brexit, no need for any hard border controls, and that they were ready to implement the light touch required. The Irish government and its EU masters then prevented them from talking to each other further. We have previously published the detailed testimony and could do so again, if it would help MPs.

Want to know how the Republic of Ireland and the EU have benefited financially from their 'Protocol'?

Facts4EU.Org has been researching this and the results so far are very revealing. We have not had the financial resources to complete this report but if get them we are sure we'll get coverage in the national press. Please see below for how to donate.

Observations

The commentary and reporting in the media which we have seen to date talks about the EU’s offer to reduce its controls over Northern Ireland trade. What these reports do not do is put the issue the other way around. Instead of saying “50% reduction” in whatever, why not say “50% of EU-imposed controls will remain”?

Facts4EU.Org has always believed that the vote to leave the European Union was about a vote to take back control – a vote for an independent and sovereign United Kingdom to be restored, for British people to determine who governs them, and to live once again under British laws. For the EU to have divided the United Kingdom and to have imposed its own laws on one part of it is still a disgrace – and one that must be rectified.

The people of Northern Ireland have now experienced the effects of living under EU laws while the rest of the UK has become relatively free. It has not been pretty. Changing things here and there is not enough. We want our country back.

After the EU weaponised Brexit, Facts4EU.Org has said many times over the years that we must leave no-one behind. Our position stands.

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[ Sources: EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thur 14 Oct 2021

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Reader Comments 7

1. Ashley Great Britain , Thursday, October 14, 2021, 12:19:

The reason the EU are now accepting that they need to change things is because they can see frost and the UK Gov now mean business.
The EU don't want article 16 to be used, so they will try and rectify parts of the agreement to the UK's liking. They will try to change as little as possible, Each time gauging the UK's resolve.
The UK negotiators were under duress when they signed the agreement and the EU knew this.
The British Government had no other choice at the time.
Brexit, or the want for Brexit, did not cause this.
The draconian anti democratic elements are all the Eu's making.

2. Mandy Towers , Thursday, October 14, 2021, 16:04:

We don't want any of the NI protocol we need the whole thing scrapped completely. No involvement by eu in any part of the UK. Stop fiddling with a deal you forced upon us.

3. Ian Small , Thursday, October 14, 2021, 16:08:

Imagine if Boris and Lord Frost were not in their posts....May would have capitulated

4. Michael Burnhill , Thursday, October 14, 2021, 16:35:

But we shouldn't be asking EU permission in our own countries affairs and their courts shouldn't be deciding anything. Not to mention EU human rights which we should have abandoned as soon as we left. Sort these problems out and we will be free of EU interference.

5. Brian , Friday, October 15, 2021, 10:46:

1. Poppycock, the PM already said what he thinks about business. This was not a win for the UK, as much as it feels like one.
This is a funnelling process, usually done in any defaulting party's legal dealings, whereby, the debt is not removed, it is merely reduced, only if you agree that there is a debt.
The UK will have to accept this or walk away with nothing. Everyone here knows that shortages are not as Farage described - "utter tosh" - it's real. It will get even worse by walking away. Brexit did this, your vote did this. Accepting willy nilly anything that is told to you did this. Of course you will never realise your own fault in this, not even if the country ground to a standstill - you'd blame the EU - for your own vote.

6. Adam Hiley , Friday, October 15, 2021, 16:37:

Tell this vice commissioner to get lost and keep out of our internal affairs Sleepy Joe Biden also We need a new Prime minister asap

7. Mark , Monday, October 18, 2021, 15:19:

1: Brian, dear boy, you rather disprove the "infinite monkey theorem". For your edification; It states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. There is more, but that is enough. You hit keys at random but make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
2: The, so called, shortages are indeed "utter tosh", and, where there is a shortage, it is almost entirely driven by the "headless chicken" mentality of the population.
3: "Brexit did this, your vote did this". I am rather proud of that. Would I have stayed if the EU were not so arrogant and blind to the need for change? Probably, it's called inertia and fear of change. Why mess with that which is working? The problem; It wasn't working for us, only for them. Had the EU not told Cameron to "Foxtrot Oscar", I and many others would have walked along the "wait and see" path. They did not. So I, and many others, went back to our original position, which can be encapsulated in the same "Foxtrot Oscar" attitude with which they answered us.
4: You and others of your stripe (yellow along the spine) accept, willy-nilly, anything that you are told by those with a rather sinister agenda. That you will accept this, with absolutely no critical filter regarding the well documented, and proven, lies told about pretty much everything, marks you as a fool, and a bigoted, blind fool at that.
I wish you a great life, I really do. I doubt that you will have one because you are unaware that holding on to resentment is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die.

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