The European Commission insists that border check facilities must be completed by mid-2021. \ Philip Doyle The UK government must ensure it aligns its standards with the EU or thousands of animal health certificates will soon be needed for products coming into Northern Ireland from Britain, according to Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus. The current grace period which gives some leeway on checks comes to a close in April and supermarkets have already written to UK minister Michael Gove calling for the period to be extended. Border checks Tensions around border checks have been growing since Friday, when the Northern Irish Minister for Agriculture Gordon Lyons said that construction and recruitment for permanent border checks was being halted due to practical difficulties.