of proposals you put together, i believe, last autumn, in october. for which we have had very little reaction from the. well, you ve got a reaction now. the british government says, you know what, we re actually going to have to completely rethink this. we re going to walk away from the protocol as it currently is constituted, but we are going to put forward, through legislation, our own measures, which will meet the eu s demands. it will clarify and simplify trade between great britain and northern ireland, but it will also safeguard the eu single market. and they ll do that by creating these red and green channels, so that trade that is specifically from great britain to northern ireland, and not going anywhere near the republic of ireland and your single market, that will go in a green channel and you will not monitor it, you will not demand the bureaucracy and the paperwork that currently is required. what s wrong with that? i know the other position of the government, wh
joao vale de almeida. is this a fight where everyone gets hurt? joao vale de almeida, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it s a pleasure to have you. i want to start with some words of yours from, actually, early in your posting here in london as eu ambassador. you said, we have divorced. it s always complicated to divorce and it is difficult to find a new balance. well, many months have passed since then. why are you still failing to find a new balance?
to completely rethink this. we re going to walk away from the protocol as it currently is constituted, but we are going to put forward, through legislation, our own measures, which will meet the eu s demands. it will clarify and simplify trade between great britain and northern ireland, but it will also safeguard the eu single market. and they ll do that by creating these red and green channels, so that trade that is specifically from great britain to northern ireland, and not going anywhere near the republic of ireland and your single market, that will go in a green channel and you will not monitor it, you will not demand the bureaucracy and the paperwork that currently is required. what s wrong with that? i know the other position of the government, which you described in a very favourable way. it s much less simple than that because it puts in question fundamental elements of the protocol. let me give you. only you don t trust london. you don t trust london any more, do you?
pessimistic right now. we are serene but firm. let s talk about one other challenge that, while you re wrestling, you personally in london, wrestling with this very difficult situation with britain and brexit, the eu s arguably got a much greater strategic problem right now, and that is how best to show unity, decisiveness in the confrontation with vladimir putin after his invasion of ukraine. as a very senior eu diplomat, are you satisfied with the levels of unity you re seeing? as you said, i ve been around for some time and i ve not been as proud as i am today for many years with the european union. i mean, if you take our reaction to brexit, if you take our reaction to covid, if you take our reaction to ukraine, three major crises, and the union has proven to be alive, dynamic, united. and if i take ukraine. yeah, well, i want you to take ukraine cos i m just thinking
belittling it a very significant fallout with the european union over the treaty, or peace and stability in northern ireland. which is more important? and in london, frankly, they ve decided that they have to safeguard peace and stability in northern ireland first. we believe the two are compatible and the proof is that we agreed on this protocol as the way exactly to protect the good friday agreement, so we need to continue to work in practical terms, implementing solutions, and what we have put on the table, stephen, what we have put on the table goes very far in addressing that. we are ready to reduce 80% of the sanitary checks, 50% of the paperwork. we will allow a single truck, instead of 300 pages, to produce three pages. hmm. three pages. no, i saw that. essentially, that was a package of proposals you put together, i believe, last autumn, in october. for which we have had very little reaction from the. well, you ve got a reaction now. the british government says, you know wh