EU’s Brexit chief Maros Sefcovic accuses the UK of dragging its feet over Northern Ireland border row solution as he urges Lord Frost to ‘double efforts’ to secure a breakthrough

  • Maros Sefcovic stated that he is ‘the only one pushing for urgent solutions. 
  • EU Brexit chief instructed Lord Frost and the UK to make ‘double effort’ for breakthrough
  • UK and EU continue to hold talks in an effort to improve Northern Ireland Protocol 










Today, the EU’s Brexit chief accused the UK for lagging behind in crunch negotiations on the Northern Ireland border dispute. 

Maros Séfcovic is the vice-president of the European Commission and said that he feels sometimes like “the only one pushing for urgent solutions” during meetings with Lord Frost. 

To help achieve a breakthrough, he urged both the UK’s Brexit Minister and UK’s negotiating team to “double their efforts”. 

After signs that some progress had been made last week and the beginning of a thaw in relations, the comments could corrode the mood around the talks. 

Maros Sefcovic, the vice president of the European Commission, said he sometimes feels like 'the only one who is pushing for urgent solutions' during discussions with Lord Frost

Maros Sfcovic (Vice President of the European Commission) said that he feels sometimes like “the only one pushing for urgent solutions” during meetings with Lord Frost

Lord Frost and Mr Sefcovic met for talks in Brussels on Friday and the former said afterwards that there is now 'the potential to generate some momentum' in the discussions

Meeting in Brussels between Lord Frost & Mr Sefcovic on Friday saw the latter stating that there was now the potential for generating momentum in the talks

Talks between the UK and EU continue to be held about how to improve Northern Ireland Protocol.  

As part of the original Brexit deal the protocol requires that all goods are checked at ports. This is to ensure there’s no return to the Republic’s land borders. 

However, it caused trade disruption and has angered unionists.   

Although Britain and Brussels had been in talks for several months about how to improve operation of the protocol, a breakthrough is still elusive.    

The government has made repeated threats to activate Article 16 of Protocol to unilaterally suspend Border arrangements, if EU resists.

A similar move from Brussels would be almost certain to trigger a lawsuit and may even lead to trade war. 

Lord Frost wrote in The Mail on Sunday that the EU’s solutions have not dealt with the problem. He called for more ambition and urgency.    

But Mr Sefcovic told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘I think that what was very important in the Lord Frost article was the word of urgency.

‘Sometimes I have the feeling that in our meetings that I am the only one who is pushing for urgent solutions because we have been putting on the table the proposals on solving uninterrupted supply of medicines to Northern Ireland since 30th of June.

‘I remember very well that Lord Frost has been telling me that what is very important for him is not only content but also process and therefore I was waiting if he can deliver on that solution jointly.’

As he stated that the emphasis should be on solving problems, Mr Sefcovic cautioned the UK against ‘political pretensions and bringing more problems to the table’. 

He added: ‘I am sure that if Lord Frost and the UK would double their efforts and (meet us halfway) we can resolve all the outstanding issues to the satisfaction of the people of Northern Ireland.’

Asked if he believes the UK could still trigger Article 16, Mr Sefcovic said: ‘We had a change in tone in the discussions over the last two weeks which I really appreciate.’

He added: ‘It is a decision of the UK Government. We are doing everything possible to avoid it.’     

On Friday, Lord Frost and Mr Sefcovic met in Brussels for talks. The former stated that the discussion was now “potentially to generate momentum”.  

He reiterated the warning of the UK that there were still “significant gaps” between them on most issues. 

Lord Frost claimed that while the government prefers to secure a consensus solution, he said the preference of the Government is for’secure an agreement’. However, if no deal is reached, he stated that Article 16 will be used by the UK to unilaterally stop the border arrangements. 

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