Foreign Secretary and Vice President Šefčovič discuss Northern Ireland Protocol

Article summary

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has published a joint statement from the Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič after they met in London to discuss the Northern Ireland Protocol. In the meeting, the parties took stock of work to find joint solutions to the concerns raised by businesses and communities in Northern Ireland, underlined the EU and UK’s shared commitment to protect the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement in all its parts while protecting the integrity of both the EU Single Market and the UK internal market and agreed that a range of critical issues need to be resolved to find a way forward. The two also reached an agreement on the way forward regarding the specific question of the EU’s access to UK IT systems, noted this work was a critical prerequisite to building trust and providing assurance and provided a new basis for...