In coming to the only realistic deal on medicines the EU admits Protocol is a work in progress

Research from QUB showed last week that the protocol splits the NI population right down the middle. I suspect that’s reflection of the unreal way the negotiation process within the joint committee is being projected by both sides.

Newton Emerson gives a good example of how the material reality the EU has been projecting dematerialised rapidly under pressure from harsh reality:

As the year progressed, it quickly became apparent the medicines sea border was a practical and political absurdity. Private manufacturers began withdrawing vital products immediately. Northern Ireland has a monopoly medical provider – the National Health Service – which imports 98 per cent of its medicine from Britain. It cannot realistically source elsewhere, given the UK-wide processes it must follow, nor is it likely to become an international drug smuggler.

The UK government was faced with a pointless requirement to shut down healthcare in Northern Ireland on December 31st. Obviously, it was never going to comply and the EU would have looked monstrous and ridiculous to have insisted upon it. The brief triggering of article 16 in February to block vaccines into Northern Ireland showed Brussels how badly such a move would have played.

A medicines supply cliff edge would, however, justify the UK triggering article 16, as Boris Johnson pointed out at the G7 in May. Two weeks before, the UK had offered a “roadmap” solution where medicines would still comply with EU requirements but be approved by a regulator in Britain. Time was pressing as the actual cliff edge turned out to be on June 30th: suppliers need to give six months’ notice of withdrawal of medicines and they were increasingly beginning to do so.

At the foot of the piece, he remarks…

Too much debate on the protocol conceives of it as a righteous punishment on the UK or unionism, to be “fully” or “rigorously” implemented.

Now the EU has admitted it is a work in progress, the protocol should be more widely seen for what it is: a first-draft framework for practical solutions, to be implemented as lightly and flexibly as possible.

As I remarked to Alex Salmond today, as long as people don’t lose their wits on this (and imagine we must perform an impossible rewiring of its whole supply system on a sixpence), the prize at the end of this a huge strategic advantage for NI.

Photo by Artem Beliaikin is licensed under CC0

Mick Fealty

Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty