The DUP’s Westminster leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has called the Northern Ireland Protocol a “stick for the EU to beat the UK with” after Brexit.
The mechanism was developed at the 11th hour to ease issues around the Irish border, one of the major sticking points in Brexit negotiations.
However, there was anger when the EU moved to use the protocol to stop the unimpeded flow of vaccines from the bloc into Northern Ireland as part of efforts to place controls on the export of Covid vaccines amid its row with AstraZeneca over its supply contract.
READ MORE: Analysis: Euro 'misjudgement' managed to unite London, Belfast and Dublin in fury at Brussels
The DUP’s Westminster leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told Times Radio: “That the EU was going to use the Northern Ireland Protocol as the very instrument to create a medicines border on the island of Ireland, to create a border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland for the very thing that people are looking for most at the moment – this coronavirus vaccine – just left me feeling absolutely incredulous.
“I’m glad they backed down but I’m afraid the genie is out of the bottle and that genie is that the EU clearly sees the Northern Ireland Protocol as a stick to beat the UK with.
“They did it yesterday, they will do it again. That is why we have said to the Prime Minister this protocol is harming the integrity of the UK single market. It is harming the Northern Ireland economy.”
Article 16 of the protocol gives the EU or the UK the ability to unilaterally suspend aspects of its operation if either side considers that aspect is causing “economic, societal or environmental difficulties”.
It is only supposed to be triggered in the face of “serious” problems, and if one side triggers Article 16, the other side can take rebalancing action in response.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here