The EU supports medical policy in Northern Ireland as negotiations continue

The EU is amending its laws to allow Britain to continue providing supplies to Northern Ireland as a first step in resolving the post-Brexit trade dispute in the region.

Brussels is making laws to allow UK-approved drugs to enter Northern Ireland to avoid a reduction due to post-Brexit laws.

The EU move was wisely welcomed by Lord David Frost following talks with the EU on Friday, but a negotiator with the UK Brexit warned that the two sides still had a long way to go to resolve their disputes.

The medical response, which was secretly approved by government officials, will ensure that Northern Ireland has the same access to medical care as the rest of the UK, with the end of several months of negotiations disrupting EU-UK relations. .

But even though the two sides are doing well at Christmas, Frost warned that they are still far apart on a number of key issues called the Northern Ireland protocol, which runs trade in the region.

He called for answers to be “urgently” in Northern Ireland in the new year before the general election in May, and urged the EU to find more answers.

The two sides continue to disagree on how to reduce government tensions on the Irish Sea border. This was created when Northern Ireland was abandoned in one EU stock market after Brexit in order to prevent the return of strong trade borders to the Irish island.

Although he agreed with the plan, Frost warned that the flow of traffic across the Irish Sea was “unstable”, saying it had disrupted local politics and made trade difficult and expensive for small companies in Great Britain who wanted to do so. shipping to Northern Ireland.

“I do not believe that the negotiations are about to yield the results that can solve the problems posed by the policy,” he said in a statement, adding that it was “disappointing” that the full agreement was not possible this year.

Frost wants a radical change in the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol. But this week he dropped his demands to remove the European Court of Justice’s jurisdiction over the protocol and vowed to accept a long-term agreement on the most complex issues, and to suspend others further. The alliance has convinced many EU ambassadors that the UK wants an agreement.

Maros Sefcovic, EU Commissioner Brexit, told reporters in Brussels that the medical agreement shows “the system has the potential to work on the ground. We need to improve this in some areas where we are negotiating.”

Frost called for an independent mechanism to resolve disputes over the establishment of a policy that would allow EU judges to be removed but allow them to oversee EU legal matters. But Sefcovic on Friday rejected the idea, saying the UK should comply with its signature on leaving the bloc.

“Without ECJ you would not be able to find a single market,” he said. He also said that the plan is working “to benefit Northern Ireland”, in terms of increased revenue and increased local yields on the main shelves.

Discussions will resume early January, Frost and Sefcovic meet again on January 14th.