The Northern Ireland Protocol is about politics, not peace – and always has been

The news that the Government and European Union have come to an agreement on data sharing to facilitate trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is welcome – but it does not solve the problems of the Northern Ireland Protocol. 

In theory, providing high quality data to the EU to analyse trade flows should end the EU’s requirement for checks on trade between different parts of the United Kingdom. However, though politicians like Leo Varadkar are now admitting fault in the EU’s approach to the Protocol, the EU still insists that it will not change the Protocol, merely its implementation. The Government should remember the reasons why it sought to renegotiate the Protocol in the first place. 

As a recent report from the Nuffield Trust shows, one of the most enduring iniquities of the Protocol remains, which is Northern Ireland remaining inside the European Union’s medicines regulatory sphere. The Trust reports that of 597 products approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency for Great Britain, only eight were approved for Northern Ireland "under the same name and company", and "only a minority" by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which still has authority in Northern Ireland under the terms of the Protocol. 

Freedom from the slow processes of the EMA was one of the main benefits of Brexit, helping to enable the UK’s rapid approval and procurement of vaccines in 2020. This freedom is being denied to citizens of the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland, and Unionist politicians are right to call for reform. Many will remember the EU’s refusal to renegotiate the Protocol in 2021, yet the possibility of Northern Irish people losing access to medicines under the EMA’s jurisdiction helped bring the EU to the negotiating table. This possibility has materialised, and the government’s justification for reforming the Protocol remains. 

The problems of the Protocol go beyond medicines. Its disproportionate effects were highlighted by the senior Northern Irish civil servant Denis McMahon in 2021. He estimated that the number of sanitary and phytosanitary checks on goods flowing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland were 20 per cent of all documentary SPS checks made by the EU, covering a market worth 0.5 per cent of the EU’s population. This is even with grace periods, introduced unilaterally by the Government, in operation. Were the Protocol implemented without these liberalisations, its effects would be catastrophic for Northern Ireland’s economy and its relationship with Great Britain, its biggest trading partner.

There has been disquiet around delays to the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, rumoured to be on hold in case the negotiations are resolved by April’s 25th Anniversary of the Belfast Agreement. The suggestion that the King’s Speech may also be delayed to the Autumn gives the EU the chance to play for time. With a large number of controversial but important bills progressing through Parliament, like the Retained EU Law Bill and this week's Minimum Services Bill, that will have a rough time in the Lord, many will be anxious to see it delivered rather than languishing on the order paper ever closer to the next election. 

The longer this continues, the weaker the leverage provided by the Bill, and the more Northern Ireland will diverge from the UK on a range of issues covered by the Protocol, from regulatory reform and freeports, to medicines and gene editing, depriving it of the benefits of Brexit the government wishes to provide. 

Thanks to data-sharing and sophisticated trusted-trader schemes, trade borders are becoming digitised, allowing different regulatory zones to trade with minimal friction. This week’s agreement paves a narrow path to the reform of the Protocol, with a technological and political solution securing the integrity of the United Kingdom and the EU’s single market simultaneously. 

But that is only possible if the Government uses its strongest card, delivering the Protocol Bill in full, with no delay.