By Stefan Boscia
Brussels is ready to “double down on efforts” to broker a deal on the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol, according to the European Commission’s Vice President.
Maros Sefcovic said there is now a “clear window of opportunity” to come to an agreement with the UK, after he spoke with foreign secretary James Cleverly this afternoon.
Cleverly tweeted that the UK remains “committed to finding a durable solution for the benefit of all”, after more than a year of fruitless negotiations.
Both sides agree that checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland need to be reduced in the face of economic and political disruption.
The UK wants to completely rewrite the Brexit treaty, while the EU wants to tweak the way it is implemented.
Brussels has indicated that UK-EU relations are improving since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, after they hit rock bottom under Boris Johnson.
The Prime Minister said during his first major foreign policy speech this week that the government is 2evolving our wider post-Brexit relations with Europe”.
“We’ll foster respectful, mature relationships with our European neighbours on shared issues like energy and illegal migration to strengthen our collective resilience against strategic vulnerabilities,” he said.
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