| UPDATED: 09:30, Wed, Feb 10, 2021
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Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s European Affairs Minister, spoke to BBC’s Emily Maitlis about the coronavirus vaccine row and said it was a “mistake”. The European Commission temporarily triggered an article in the Brexit trade deal’s Northern Ireland Protocol on January 29 which suspended the country’s access to the EU’s single market. It was revoked the same day after outrage from Ireland and the UK.
The Irish Government is to seek an “early warning system” on the use of Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol on Brexit.
London, Belfast and Dublin were blindsided by a recent attempt by the European Commission to invoke Article 16, in a row over the supply of vaccines to Europe.
The Article overrides part of the Northern Ireland Protocol which prevents a hard border on the island of Ireland, and was intended as an emergency measure not to be used.
The European Commission backtracked on the decision, but it has caused massive political fallout, particularly in Northern Ireland.
I appeared before the @OireachtasNews Joint Committee on EU Affairs this morning to discuss the #brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement and the NI Protocol, specifically Article 16. I welcome this cross party scrutiny pic.twitter.com/gZ0HrsT5YY
Reuters Reuters
1 February, 2021, 8:35 am
FILE PHOTO: A No Hard Border poster is seen below a road sign on the Irish side of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland near Bridgend, Ireland October 16, 2019. Picture taken October 16, 2019. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) – EU officials confessed on Saturday to a “blunder” in invoking Northern Ireland Brexit emergency powers during a showdown with Britain over vaccines, and London said it expected its supply of COVID-19 shots would not be interrupted.
The European Union has fallen far behind Britain and the United States in the race to vaccinate its public. It announced on Friday it would impose export controls on vaccines, widely seen as a threat to prevent doses from being sent to Britain.