Following a conference of the Specialised Committee on the Implementation of the Windsor Framework in Brussels on Friday, the joint EU/UK group said they “welcomed the adoption by the EU of legislation in the areas of agri-food, medicines, tariff rate quotas and customs”.
Details of the Windsor Framework were released in February this year.
It was an agreeement prepared by the UK and EU to deal with political and industrial issues that the NI Protocol post-Brexit trading plans were weakening Northern Ireland’s location in the United Kingdom and preventing the totally free motion of products.
The latest statement from the EU likewise said the committee co-chairs “analyzed the work carried out by both sides on the application of the Windsor Framework” given that the last conference in London.
In recent weeks, the Council of the European Union said the brand-new policies being advanced “will make it considerably easier to move a range of goods from Great Britain into Northern Ireland if they are destined for final consumption there”.
Refering to the policies around agrifoods, plants and animals, the Council said: “In practice, the new rules regarding sanitary and phytosanitary measures, which protect animal, public and plant health, will make it possible to move agrifood retail products from Great Britain to Northern Ireland for end consumption there with minimal certification requirements and controls, once the agreed safeguards have been put in place.”
Timothy Gaston of the TUV has said the latest reports of development need to not be misinterpreted for a “magnanimous gesture” for the advantage of individuals of Northern Ireland.
“Today’s statement by the Specialised Committee simply highlights the truth that the Protocol is unreformable and need to go,” the Bannside councillor said.
“It is stunning that choices on animal and plant health problems and medications are not made by our own nation however chose in assessment with EU bureaucrats.
“Far from representing development, it graphically highlights the democratic and constitutional profanity which is the Protocol.
“Those who claim otherwise expect us to welcome it as some magnanimous gesture from our colonial overlords.”
Cllr Gaston included: “For as long as Northern Ireland is subject to foreign laws we do not make and cannot change – and dictated to by people like Maroš Šefčovič who is accountable to no one in Northern Ireland – the current situation will be intolerable.”
Earlier this month, the Council of the European Union said: “The movement of certain plants for planting, based on a special plant health label, will become easier, as will the movement of agricultural machinery. The ban on seed potatoes will be removed.
