Brussels proposes to reduce property controls between Great Britain and Ireland by 80%

The European Commission proposed this Wednesday to reduce by 80% the sanitary and phytosanitary controls to which goods that transit from Great Britain to Northern Ireland are subjected, with the aim of facilitating the implementation of the Northern Irish protocol included in the Brexit agreement.

The initiative is included in a package of measures that the Community Executive presented today and that also covers customs, medicines and the participation of Northern Irish political institutions, companies and civil society in the protocol processes.

This protocol prevents the return of a trade border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, but creates new controls on goods traveling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, a region of the United Kingdom where market rules continue to apply. only community.

The new bureaucratic burden has led to product shortages and political tensions in Northern Ireland.

In addition, the United Kingdom is delaying the full implementation of the protocol and yesterday the British Secretary of State for Brexit, David Frost, insisted on renegotiating that part of the pact.

In this context, Brussels today presented the measures with which it intends to facilitate the movement of products from Great Britain to the British province.

In the case of sanitary and phytosanitary controls, it is proposed to eliminate "approximately" 80% of the checks "for a wide range of retail products" traveling from Great Britain to be consumed in Northern Ireland, including those that may be found in supermarkets, such as hot dogs, community sources indicated.

Document checks will remain virtual, while physical and identity checks would see the 80% decline, so fewer trucks would stop and there would be fewer inspections.

The sources specified that with the new proposal, a truck that transports food products such as dairy, fish, meat, fruits and vegetables between Great Britain and Northern Ireland would need a single certificate specifying that all those goods of different kinds comply with the legislation. of the EU.

They detailed that if a vehicle transports a hundred types of products, it will only need a certificate, except if they are "very specific high risk" goods.

Regarding customs, it is proposed to halve the administrative procedures and increase the coverage of the scheme on products that are considered not to pose a risk of entering the single market, so that it covers more goods and companies, such as SMEs.

Goods arriving in Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK and not at risk of later going to the EU will not have to pay customs duties.

A Northern Irish company buying goods in Britain, such as car components, will only have to provide basic information such as invoice value and transaction parts, rather than the full set of information from the Union customs code.

In terms of medicines, UK pharmaceutical companies supplying Northern Ireland will be able to maintain their regulatory functions where they are today, without the need to install infrastructure in the British province.

The aim is to guarantee the supply of medicines from Great Britain to Northern Ireland in the long term without increasing costs.

On "democratic" participation, it seeks to improve information exchanges with Northern Irish stakeholders, such as authorities, civil society or companies, so that the application of the protocol is more transparent for them.