Michel Barnier: It cannot be possible to drop this protocol
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The former EU Brexit negotiator accused the Prime Minister of being a “buccaneer” as he called on Mr Johnson to respect the withdrawal agreement signed in 2020. He told French channel Europe 1: “What interests me about Boris Johnson is that he respects his commitments, that he does not behave like a buccaneer and that he respects his signature.”
Mr Barnier went on to say that the Prime Minister should “respect EU fishermen” and should respect Irish citizens over the issues around the Northern Ireland Protocol.
But the former EU chief was promptly scolded by Generation Frexit leader Charles-Henri Gallois who said: “You haven’t read the treaty you negotiated?
“On fishing, the UK respected the agreement.
“The EU and you negotiated very badly.”
Mr Gallois added: “On Ireland, it is also a big joke.
“It was you who cynically used it all the time during the negotiations.”
The former Brexit negotiator has been attacking the Prime Minister front and centre for the past week.
He criticised Mr Johnson for threatening to take unilateral action to rip up the mechanism if the EU refused to compromise in discussions on how to make the deal more sustainable in the long run.
Attacking Mr Johnson for urging Brussels to fix the problems caused by the Protocol, Mr Barnier said last week that the deal was “exactly what they signed up”.
He said: “The British Government has very consciously accepted this complicated solution which preserves the all-Ireland economy, protects the internal market, provides the controls we need and keeps the peace.
“The British Government must adopt a pragmatic attitude, without ideology, in order to find practical solutions.”
Mr Barnier added: “Mr Johnson is a skilled and experienced politician, he has around him very high-quality civil servants.
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“They know exactly what they signed up for and they are the ones who negotiated.
“The content is detailed, it was negotiated down to the comma.”
Rejecting the Frenchman’s remarks, a No10 official said: “We couldn’t anticipate at the time that the EU would take the maximalist approach they did to the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is why we are continuing to work and continuing to seek changes to it.
“That will tackle the impacts that people face on the ground.”
Unionists have warned the Protocol has undermined Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom by placing barriers to trade.
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Goods crossing from Great Britain are subjected to bureaucratic customs checks, with many companies simply refusing to ship to the province due to excessive paperwork.
Presently good travelling to Northern Ireland is assumed at risk of entering the EU’s single market via the Republic in the south.
Mr Johnson wants Brussels to agree to scrap customs checks for all products unlikely to leave the UK.
He is also calling for the role of the European Court of Justice in overseeing the Protocol to be removed.
The Prime Minister has argued that it is impossible for the EU court to be impartial in proceedings.
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