The European Union's tensions with former member Britain are not due to problems with the Northern Ireland protocol agreed by both sides, but Brexit itself, the head of the bloc's executive said on Tuesday. https://www.eudebates.tv/debates/special-debates/uk-politics/eu-uk-trade-deal-eu-protection-fair-competition-and-common-future/ Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference after the first day of an EU summit in Brussels that all 27 member states of the bloc agreed that there can be no alternative to a full and correct implementation of the protocol.
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"There should be no doubt that there is no alternative to the full and correct implementation of the protocol, she said.
"It is important to reiterate that the protocol is the only possible solution to ensure peace and stability in Northern Ireland while protecting the integrity of the European Union single market," von der Leyen added.
"If we see problems today we should not forget that they do not come from the protocol but result from Brexit, that is the reason why the problems are there."
A new raft of checks on goods at the ports of Belfast and Larne under the terms of the protocol have sparked anger among unionists and loyalists.
Recent tensions felt in Northern Ireland are not a result of the protocol introduced after the UK left the EU but rather Brexit itself, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said.
She was speaking following the first day of the EU Council – the first such meeting since the introduction of the EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement at the beginning of May.
Mrs von der Leyen said: “The beginnings are not easy, tensions are being felt around the access, for example, of EU fishing boats, or tensions are without any doubt there around the implementation of the protocol of Northern Ireland.”
A new raft of checks on goods at the ports of Belfast and Larne under the terms of the protocol have sparked anger among unionists and loyalists who feel Northern Ireland is being separated from the rest of the UK.
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