20 July 2022

UK and EU's Rutter: breaking the deadlock on the Norther Ireland protocol

So far no PM candidate has offered an alternative to proceeding with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and playing hardball with the EU over the future trading arrangements between GB and NI.

In September the UK will have a new Prime Minister. There may be changes of policy direction – on tax, on levelling up, on net zero. But so far no candidate has offered an alternative to proceeding with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and playing hardball with the EU over the future trading arrangements between GB and NI.

Following the introduction of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, some think that a new prime minister could offer a chance for a reset of relations with the EU – but there is scant evidence that it is possible to win the Conservative leadership while backing down on the UK government demands.

Indeed the EU is assuming that the leadership election is simply a hiatus and a new Prime Minister, either one who owes their election to the ERG, or who will be on constant watch for ERG manoeuvres, will simply double down.

This is bad for Northern Ireland, its people and businesses who need a government to deal with a myriad of pressing issues.  It’s bad for its economy, which continues to be bedevilled by uncertainty.  It’s bad for the rest of the UK, as the potential for a trade war with the EU makes the UK a less attractive destination for investment and production.

It’s bad for UK-EU cooperation which has ground to a halt on everything except Ukraine as Brussels shuts out Brits (and the UK and EU will desperately need to cooperate in the winter if the Russians turn off the gas taps). And the threat to break international law by a member of the G7 is bad for the fragile rules-based world order. Alexa, define a lose, lose, lose, lose situation.

The search for a solution is complicated. There are some real problems of substance with the practical operation of a fully implemented Protocol. Yes, the EU can point to the fact the UK signed up to it (and it did) but it is not clear that the people of Northern Ireland should suffer long-term from the irresponsibility of a Prime Minister who has now (almost) departed.

Yes, it is very difficult for the EU to have its tightly controlled external customs and regulatory frontier contracted out to an untrustworthy third party with which it has rock-bottom relations.  But the EU needs to recognise that there is no groundswell of British public opinion that will persuade mainstream politicians to sign up to an EEA style arrangement for the UK. So it will have to cope with a Brexited Britain on its doorstep.

Both sides have dug themselves in. The UK has convinced itself that only hardball tactics work. The EU thinks that it cannot move because the UK government is so little trusted that any concession would be pocketed by the UK and it would come back for more. The prospects of an autumn “tunnel” where the two sides emerge from behind closed door negotiations blinking into the December sunlight with a deal looks remote.

So is it time for a new Prime Minister to offer a different approach?

They might start by acknowledging that Johnson and Frost did a bad deal on Northern Ireland – and take responsibility for the UK government signing up to something it was not prepared to deliver. They can point out that even the EU has already acknowledged that, by softening some aspects of its operation, and thank the EU for progress on medicines. That would be easier for some candidates than others.

Then they should propose that both sides recognise that neither are trusted negotiators by some elements of the community in Northern Ireland (the UK government is not trusted across the community; the EU is not felt to ever have understood the concerns of the Unionists).

So, as happened before during the Northern Ireland peace process when it hit road blocks, the new Prime Minister should propose that the task of drawing up a workable long-term solution that best meets the requirements of all the stakeholders in the process – but in particular the people of Northern Ireland – should be remitted to an external arbitrator who should be a distinguished figure of international repute, supported by a secretariat and some nominated advisers....

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