EC wants an Irish border after all*

The BBC had a revealing story yesterday to follow up on the vaccine wars:

The EU is introducing controls on vaccines made in the bloc, including to Northern Ireland, amid a row about delivery shortfalls.

Under the Brexit deal, all products should be exported from the EU to Northern Ireland without checks.

But the EU believed this could be used to circumvent export controls, with NI becoming a backdoor to the wider UK....

NI First Minister Arlene Foster described the move as "an incredible act of hostility" by the EU.... Arlene Foster said the EU had placed a "hard border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland...."By triggering Article 16 in this manner, the European Union has once again shown it is prepared to use Northern Ireland when it suits their interests but in the most despicable manner - over the provision of a vaccine which is designed to save lives," she said...."At the first opportunity the EU has placed a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland over the supply chain of the coronavirus vaccine.

The EU invoked Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol which allows parts of the deal to be unilaterally overridden.

In a new regulation, the European Commission stated: "This is justified as a safeguard measure pursuant to Article 16 of that Protocol in order to avert serious societal difficulties due to a lack of supply threatening to disturb the orderly implementation of the vaccination campaigns in the Member States."

Unionist politicians in Northern Ireland have been agitating for the UK government to use Article 16 to reduce checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

The government has been resisting this, insisting the new arrangements are not creating serious difficulties.

[In an Analysis section]
The EU's actions are seen as an audacious move. Unionist politicians are incredulous.
Throughout the Brexit process the EU vehemently insisted there could be no border on the island of Ireland. For a while the entire trade deal hinged on this.
But now, to critics, it appears that principle has vanished over vaccines.
It begs the question, if the EU can decide to push this button on this, what else might they use it for in future?
Those who strongly oppose the Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland will be pushing even harder now for the UK to use Article 16 to override parts of the deal for its own purposes, too

Who knew there was an Article 16? The Graun covered the u-turn rather than the initial aggression, of course... 

The EU has said it is “not triggering the safeguard clause” to block Covid vaccine exports from the bloc to Northern Ireland after widespread condemnation of the move.

The EU’s initial decision to trigger a Brexit deal clause to place controls on the export of vaccines sparked criticism on both sides of Irish border and led to frantic talks including a call between the UK and Ireland to avert a full-scale crisis.
On news that the move to trigger article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol was not going ahead, the Irish taoiseach, Micheál Martin, tweeted that it was a “welcome decision by the European commission” and “a positive development given the many challenges we face in tackling Covid-19”.

Irish government sources told reporters the initial decision was “completely unnecessary” and had “explosive political implications”....It is believed the decision was made without consultation with either the UK or Ireland government....tensions over the Northern Ireland protocol had risen over the past fortnight with traders unhappy with the extent of checks on goods traded across the Irish Sea and controversy over the future movement of troops between Great Britain and NI.

“To retaliate in this way using the Northern Ireland protocol as a football is very dangerous,” they [an EU diplomatic source I think] said.

Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, told BBC’s Newsnight the use of article 16 was an “accident” and “a mishap” that had been “repaired”

I saw the broadcast and it was clear she was, as we Brits say, taking the piss, trotting out the EU line about the interest only in transparency, insisting there was no hostility, assuming a sweet innocence that would not fool a 5-year old, an entirely cynical performance. The (DUP) NI spokesperson, whom the Graun does not quote was furious