Northern Ireland’s First Minister has said she awaits the detail of the “agreement in principle” that has been reached between the UK and EU on aspects of Brexit pertaining to the region.
Arlene Foster said she spoke with Michael Gove earlier after it was announced that the Government had confirmed it will withdraw controversial measures which could see the Brexit divorce deal torn up.
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The move follows progress in talks led by Michael Gove and Maros Sefcovic on issues including the Northern Ireland protocol.
Speaking on the matter Arlene Foster said: “We await to see the detail. For us the important issue on all of these matters is that we have unfettered access from Northern Ireland into Great Britain, but also that trade from Great Britain into Northern Ireland can trade freely as well, so we await to see what has happened in relation to those matters,” she told reporters in Enniskillen on Tuesday.
“I understand that Michael Gove will make a statement to Parliament tomorrow, I very much hope that the detail will become very clear then.
“Thirty-two business organisations wrote to us yesterday to say that we need clarity, and more than that a free trade agreement, so they were going wider than the protocol. And we again hope there will be a breakthrough in relation to the main negotiations as well.”
European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said the EU would make sure Boris Johnson’s Government followed up its promise to withdraw the proposals to break international law in the UK Internal Market Bill.
“We will continue to follow this closely and make sure the contentious provisions are effectively withdrawn,” he told reporters.
At a news conference, Mr Sefcovic said he hoped the agreement on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement could create “positive momentum” in the trade talks.
“We are still very far apart and we are not hiding this from anyone,” he said.
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But he added: “Clearly we created positive momentum, we removed one big obstacle from the way and I hope that we will see positive results also coming from these very complex negotiations, even though we are fully aware how complicated and demanding this process is.”
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