EU introduces controls on vaccines to Northern Ireland
The EU is introducing controls on vaccines made in the bloc, including to Northern Ireland, amid a row about delivery shortfalls.
Under the Brexit deal, all products should be exported from the EU to Northern Ireland without checks.
But the EU believed this could be used to circumvent export controls, with NI becoming a backdoor to the wider UK.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for the EU to ’’urgently clarify its intensions’’
Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland first Minister described the move as “an incredible act of hostility” by the EU.
The EU invoked Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol which allows parts of the deal to be unilaterally overridden.
In a new regulation, the European Commission stated: “This is justified as a safeguard measure pursuant to Article 16 of that Protocol in order to avert serious societal difficulties due to a lack of supply threatening to disturb the orderly implementation of the vaccination campaigns in the Member States.”
The move comes amid a dispute over vaccine producer AstraZeneca’s delivery commitments to the EU.
The bloc agreed to buy up to 400m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last year, and on Friday the EU’s drugs regulator approved their use for all adults.
But the firm said that due to problems at one of its EU factories, supplies would be reduced by about 60% in the first quarter of 2021.
A report said: “The UK government is urgently seeking an explanation from the European Commission about the statements issued by the EU today and assurances as to its intentions.
“The UK has legally-binding agreements with vaccine suppliers and it would not expect the EU, as a friend and ally, to do anything to disrupt the fulfilment of these contracts.
“The UK government has reiterated the importance of preserving the benefits of the Belfast/Good Friday agreement and the commitments that have been made to the two communities.”
The prime minister spoke with Taoiseach prime minister Micheal Martin on Friday night and stressed the need for the EU to clarify its intentions.
An Irish government spokesman said Mr Martin was currently in discussions with European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen to express Dublin’s concerns.
Aggressive and Shameful
The Northern Ireland Protocol is a special deal to prevent the re-emergence of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, agreed in the original withdrawal agreement, is essentially a safeguard that would allow the UK or EU to act unilaterally if measures imposed as a result of the protocol are deemed to be causing “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties”.
Unionist politicians in Northern Ireland have been agitating for the UK government to use Article 16 to reduce checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
The government has been resisting this, insisting the new arrangements are not creating serious difficulties.
Olusola Akintonde/ BBC
