Next year’s elections for the Stormont Assembly must not be allowed to become a referendum on the Northern Ireland Protocol, Dublin has warned.
Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, said that UK-EU negotiations over the protocol should not drag on past February.
“We have elections in Northern Ireland in May. Those elections will begin in earnest really from the end of February. So this can’t drift on for months,” he told the Financial Times.
Otherwise, he said, “the election in Northern Ireland will become a referendum on the protocol”.
“We all know that we need to bring this discussion and negotiation to an end,” Mr Coveney added.
“I think the month of January and February really is the timeline that we’re working in, to try to bring these discussions to a close.”
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has threatened to collapse Stormont and trigger early elections if not enough progress in talks over the protocol are made.
There is speculation that Sinn Fein could replace the DUP as the largest party in Northern Ireland in the May 5 elections.
A November poll by the University of Liverpool found the DUP falling behind Sinn Fein with 62.1 per cent of saying they had handled the protocol dispute badly.
Protocol talks broke up before Christmas without hoped for breakthroughs on medicines or cutting customs checks on British goods to Northern Ireland.
Brexit minister Lord Frost resigned shortly afterwards, citing his opposition to the government’s Covid policy, and was replaced by Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary.
The UK has signalled a softening of its approach to the role of EU judges overseeing the implementation of EU law in Northern Ireland before Lord Frost quit.
However, Ms Truss has insisted that triggering Article 16 of the protocol remains on the table.Article 16 would mean unilaterally disapplying parts of the protocol, which would infuriate Brussels. EU figures have warned it could mean the bloc cancels its trade deal with the UK.
Mr Coveney warned that triggering the clause would “backfire” and said the EU would not compromise over the European Court of Justice.
He accused the UK of making “no concessions all year […] while the EU has made multiple concessions and continues to do so”.
