Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said he doesn’t expect Liz Truss will trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol if she becomes UK prime minister, amid reports she is considering it.
(Bloomberg) —
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said he doesn’t expect Liz Truss will trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol if she becomes UK prime minister, amid reports she is considering it.
- “Liz Truss has had the opportunity and has been asked by some to trigger Article 16 before, and she hasn’t done it,” Coveney says on national broadcaster RTE’s “Morning Ireland”
- Truss has instead pursued a route of unilateral legislation, “which is even more problematic than triggering Article 16,” Coveney says, “but we’ll have to wait and see”
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- Coveney says he hopes Truss will see the opportunity and space in the next few months to try and reset relations between Britain and Ireland, as well as with the European Union
- Another election in Northern Ireland if the region’s government can’t be established by the end of October is “the last thing we need” and will “potentially be even more polarizing than the last one”
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- “What we need is compromise, pragmatism and flexibility and the British and Irish governments working closely together as opposed to entrenching differences that has resulted in a standoff on issues around the protocol for far too long”
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