The Hague, Netherlands — France’s European
affairs minister warned Britain not to play games with special post-Brexit
trading rules for Northern Ireland, as fears rise of a summer of violence in
the province.
اضافة اعلان
Clement Beaune urged London to be “responsible”
over the so-called “protocol” for Northern Ireland, which kept it in the EU
single market and customs union despite the UK’s departure from the bloc.
“We cannot accept that there is political game
with such a sensitive issue,” Beaune said in an interview with a small group of
media, including AFP, in The Hague on Saturday after talks with the Dutch
foreign minister.
“This is a central piece of European stability,
you cannot play with this. We will never play with that. But we cannot accept
that the protocol is taken lightly by any part,” he added.
“So I’m just saying, and we are discussing it of
course with the British side, do not play with the protocol.”
Tensions have been mounting in Northern Ireland
over the so-called “protocol” that came into effect at the start of 2021, with
the worst rioting in years breaking out in April and First Minister Arlene
Foster announcing her resignation.
Northern Ireland is still deeply divided between
pro-UK mainly Protestant unionists and pro-Ireland largely Catholic
nationalists, despite a 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of violence
over British rule.
Unionists believe the protocol threatens
Northern Ireland’s status in the UK and the prospect of union with neighboring
Ireland.
British Brexit minister David Frost on Monday
urged the
EU to compromise over the protocol before Northern Ireland enters a
tense summer of events marking the Protestant ascendancy over Catholics.
Fears have grown that tensions could soar again
around July 12, when pro-UK unionists annually commemorate events in the late
17th century that entrenched Protestant rule over the northern part of Catholic
Ireland.
But Beaune, who met Ireland’s foreign minister
Simon Coveney in Dublin earlier this week along with France’ foreign minister
Jean-Yves Le Drian, said London should not try to argue in favor of scrapping
the protocol.
“The protocol is not a problem. The protocol is
the solution to border problems that were created by Brexit,” Beaune said.
Ireland’s Coveney on Thursday warned Britain
that unilaterally overriding the rules would be a “disaster”.
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