Frost Proposes Official Amendment To NI Protocol

Lord Frost, speaking on EU-UK relations that he is presenting today an official amendment to the NI protocol.

• 'Alienation would be a serious historical error...The prize for entering into a new era of relations cannot be doubted...Overall we constantly face generalised accusations that we can't be trusted and we aren't a reasonable international actor...[in the EU] We see an organisation that doesn't always want us to succeed...If there is a trust problem, as we're constantly told there is, it's not the responsibility of only one party'
• On the NI protocol: '[the protocol is] the biggest source of mistrust between us and for all kinds of reasons we need to fix this problem....The facts on the ground are what matter...Maybe there was a world in which the protocol could have worked, more seriously implemented, but the world has moved on...We're asking you, the EU, to work with us to help manage the delicate balance in the Belfast Agreement...We need to move on from this. Once and for all. And that simply won't happen without significant change to existing arrangements.''
• On the new protocol submitted by UK gov't: 'Our proposal looks more like a normal treaty in the way it's governed...The commission have been a bit too quick to dismiss governance as a side issue'
• EU has repeatedly stated that it will not allow any reopening of negotiations, and seems unlikely to do so on this subject.