Brexit: New NI Protocol proposals to be brought by EU

The EU will bring forward new proposals for the Northern Ireland Protocol next week, European Commission Vice President Maros Šefčovič has said.

He said he hopes they would form the basis for intensive talks with the UK.

The protocol avoids a hard border on the island of Ireland by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods.

But unionists argue it creates a trade border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

They say it undermines Northern Ireland's constitutional position as part of the UK.

Mr Šefčovič told an event in Dublin that he hoped talks would begin before the end of October.

He said his proposals would be "very far reaching" and that he hoped they would be seen as such.

A UK government spokesperson said: "Significant changes are needed to the Protocol in order to protect the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and the peace process.

"We await a formal response from the EU to the proposals set out in our command paper. Any proposals must be subject to genuine negotiation and the commission mustn't take a 'take it or leave it' approach.

"If solutions cannot be agreed soon, we will need to act using the Article 16 safeguard mechanism to address the disruption that the protocol is causing on the ground".

Triggering Article 16 would suspend part of the protocol.

Speaking to the BBC in Brussels, United States national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned the British government that suspending the protocol would be a "serious risk to stability".

He said any possibility of a return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was "of serious concern to the United States".

Mr Sullivan said both the UK and the EU should work together "in a constructive way to find a deal and a way forward".

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - Northern Ireland's largest unionist party - had warned that it may quit Stormont if its demands over the protocol were not met.

Speaking on Thursday, the DUP leader said he was "pleased" that the EU was to table new proposals, adding that he believed pressure from unionists had "opened up the protocol".

"We were told weeks ago that the EU were not in a position where they were ever going to reopen negotiations, so I think we've breached the first wall," Sir Jeffrey said.

"And I think that is the result of unionists standing together and saying: 'Look, we cannot support this protocol; we cannot support an Irish Sea border'."

The DUP leader added: "I think the pressure we have brought to bear and the steps that have been taken in the last few weeks have focused minds both in London and Brussels and I'm pleased that we've made this level of progress, but we still have a long way to go."

Mr Šefčovič said the EU was going to "enormous lengths".

"I believe the package of practical solutions that we are putting on the table would be attractive for Northern Ireland and would be, I hope, supported by a majority of stakeholders in Northern Ireland," he told the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) in Dublin.

He said the commitment of the EU to the Good Friday Agreement was "absolute" and that the avoidance of a hard border on the island was a "prerequisite".

Earlier this week UK Brexit Minister Lord Frost said he was expecting a short, intense negotiation with the EU.

He told the Conservative party conference that the protocol was "not working and needs to change".

In July, Lord Frost put forward radical proposals for changes to the protocol.

Triggering Article 16, may end up as "the only way" forward, he warned.

Mr Šefčovič said threats to trigger Article 16 were not helpful.

He said his proposals were not presented on a "take it or leave it" basis and that both the UK and EU would need to get out of their comfort zones.