UK ‘to warn EU it may deviate from Brexit deal on N Ireland’

Britain will this week threaten to deviate from the Brexit deal unless the European Union shows more flexibility over Northern Ireland, one UK and three EU sources said, a move that could thrust the five-year Brexit divorce into tumult.
Deviating from the deal’s so-called Northern Ireland Protocol is a risky step: its aim was to prevent Brexit from disrupting the delicate peace brought to Northern Ireland by the US-brokered 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of sectarian conflict.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who signed the 2020 Brexit deal, has been dismayed by the protocol which has imposed paperwork and checks that London says could prevent British food staples such as sausages going to Northern Ireland.
David Frost, the British minister who leads Brexit negotiations, is preparing to announce a significant potential change on the protocol that could have far-reaching consequences for the relationship with the EU, one of the sources said.
The plans are being worked on by Downing Street.
Frost is due to update parliament tomorrow about Northern Ireland and Brexit, and will also present a paper on Brexit to lawmakers. Asked about the Reuters report, Johnson’s spokesman said: “We will set out our approach to the protocol in due course.”
Brussels expects Frost will push for a deviation from the protocol unless the EU agrees to compromise, said an EU diplomat who was briefed on talks with British negotiators.
A third source, a senior EU official, said Britain would caution the EU that unless an agreement was reached, unilateral measures by the UK would be possible by using Article 16 of the protocol.
“It will be a plea for more talks with the EU combined with a threat,” said the senior EU official.”But we will not agree to the reopening of the Irish protocol.”
Britain is expected to go beyond its demands for changes to veterinary rules.
The senior EU official and a second EU diplomat said that London would seek to have the European Court of Justice (ECJ) removed from the arbitration process. Preserving the peace in Northern Ireland while protecting the EU’s single market but without dividing up the United Kingdom was always the most difficult riddle of the Brexit saga since the 2016 referendum.
Since the United Kingdom exited the bloc’s orbit on January 1, Johnson unilaterally delayed the implementation of some provisions of the protocol and Frost has said the protocol is unsustainable.