The battle lines then drawn between the two sides. The UK is now saying that the protocol doesn’t work and is planning to overwrite the substance of it in UK law to suit the demands of the Unionists and Brexiteers: a dual UK-EU regulatory regime – Northern Ireland can choose to follow UK or EU regulations – and the removal of the European Court of Justice as the arbiter of disputes.
Vice president Maros Sefcovic’s message on Thursday from his office in the European Commission was that all of this was a non-starter, with the EU clear that it will not renegotiate the principles of the Brexit deal.
When I asked him if the EU had problems with just some or all of the content of the UK’s just laid Ireland Protocol Bill, Mr Sefcovic replied: “All of it.”
“We went through that content. From a legal point of view, I think that this proposal is not serious, because it brings constant instability, constant changes, not permanent solutions, not solutions we are arriving at together.”
So far, quite predictable – you would expect the EU, as it has done consistently through these talks, to stick to its position that the Withdrawal Agreement is not to be renegotiated.
But what did stand out for me was when Mr Sefcovic, a trained diplomat who chooses his words carefully, suggested this move by the UK wasn’t about the substance of the protocol (the EU think a landing zone can be found within the current deal) but about other political concerns.