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Farm Business
Politics, Covid19 and Brexit
Dr Ursula von der Leyen
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<blockquote data-quote="nivilla1982" data-source="post: 7395629" data-attributes="member: 45400"><p>"No Irish EU official was consulted before the Northern border clause was triggered</p><p>John Downing February 03 2021 02:30 AM</p><p>Simon Coveney is a man who will rarely use one word where three dozen can be poured in. But he was momentarily lost for words when asked a tricky question this week.</p><p></p><p>If Phil Hogan was still Ireland’s Commissioner, would the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol have been used in the bitter EU versus AstraZeneca vaccine export ban row? Since Mr Hogan was responsible for trade, and had been up to his oxters in the Brexit details over almost five years, would he not have strangled at birth the idea of Brussels invoking emergency powers on the North which caused dismay in Dublin, Belfast and London?</p><p></p><p>The Foreign Affairs Minister was nonplussed for a moment – which can seem like a fortnight on radio. “I think that discussion is kind of an abstract one to be honest. I mean I don’t know the answer to that question,” he faltered in his reply to RTÉ’s Claire Byrne.</p><p></p><p>But while the question is complex – it is far from abstract. On the one hand Hogan, as trade commissioner up to last August 26, had a crucial role in signing off on trade laws last spring, relating to Covid protective clothes and equipment, which were measures somewhat similar to the latest EU import limitations on vaccines.</p><p></p><p>His successor in the trade portfolio, Valdis Dombrovskis, the former Latvian prime minister, was also closely involved in the trade aspects of the benighted package announced on what turned out to be Ursula von der Leyen’s ‘Long Bad Friday’ and which triggered a big blame game.</p><p></p><p>But it is most unlikely that a more experienced or better-connected Irish Commissioner could have stopped this one before it hit. Mr Hogan’s successor could not stop it – and neither could anyone else – for the very good reason that few knew about it until it was vastly too late.</p><p> </p><p>“Absolutely no Irish person was consulted about this proposal until it was a fait accompli. There was never any attempt to attach an ‘Irish political earth wire’. Nobody on the Irish Commissioner’s team was informed in any kind of time,” one Brussels official told the Irish Independent.</p><p></p><p>“The press conference to announce the measures was scheduled in parallel with the process to approve them by the European Commission. It represented a total systems failure.”</p><p></p><p>Despite her midnight about-turn, she is seen as having triggered a Northern Ireland crisis in efforts to tackle a vaccine supply crisis.</p><p></p><p>In the hot-house that is EU Commission HQ, a nasty game of ‘pass the parcel’ has kicked off. An early attempt by some of Ms von der Leyen’s staff to blame Trade Commissioner Dombrovskis proved ill-judged.</p><p></p><p>The Commission boss will not find it easy to pass this parcel and she’s under direct attack from her predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker.</p><p></p><p>It’s unusual for a senior office holder to publicly attack his or her immediate successor. But he did just that in a speech on Tuesday night when he criticised the EU’s sluggish vaccine roll-out and suggested that an "EU-first approach” was reminiscent of a certain Donald Trump.</p><p></p><p>Last night she was called upon to give an account of herself to the main political groupings, but calls for her resignation are rather rhetorical and exaggerated – for now at least.</p><p></p><p>The reality is that she still has support from Berlin and Paris. She was trying, perhaps a little too hard and artlessly, to do their bidding in curbing movement of AstraZeneca vaccines, after the company failed in EU supply pledges.</p><p></p><p>Right now the Commission President is getting it from all sides. To her critics, it is a lesson in humility, and a reminder that she needs to stop trying to run the Brussels machine with just the help of a handful of advisers."</p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://m.independent.ie/opinion/comment/no-irish-eu-official-was-consulted-before-the-northern-border-clause-was-triggered-40044946.html[/URL]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="nivilla1982, post: 7395629, member: 45400"] "No Irish EU official was consulted before the Northern border clause was triggered John Downing February 03 2021 02:30 AM Simon Coveney is a man who will rarely use one word where three dozen can be poured in. But he was momentarily lost for words when asked a tricky question this week. If Phil Hogan was still Ireland’s Commissioner, would the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol have been used in the bitter EU versus AstraZeneca vaccine export ban row? Since Mr Hogan was responsible for trade, and had been up to his oxters in the Brexit details over almost five years, would he not have strangled at birth the idea of Brussels invoking emergency powers on the North which caused dismay in Dublin, Belfast and London? The Foreign Affairs Minister was nonplussed for a moment – which can seem like a fortnight on radio. “I think that discussion is kind of an abstract one to be honest. I mean I don’t know the answer to that question,” he faltered in his reply to RTÉ’s Claire Byrne. But while the question is complex – it is far from abstract. On the one hand Hogan, as trade commissioner up to last August 26, had a crucial role in signing off on trade laws last spring, relating to Covid protective clothes and equipment, which were measures somewhat similar to the latest EU import limitations on vaccines. His successor in the trade portfolio, Valdis Dombrovskis, the former Latvian prime minister, was also closely involved in the trade aspects of the benighted package announced on what turned out to be Ursula von der Leyen’s ‘Long Bad Friday’ and which triggered a big blame game. But it is most unlikely that a more experienced or better-connected Irish Commissioner could have stopped this one before it hit. Mr Hogan’s successor could not stop it – and neither could anyone else – for the very good reason that few knew about it until it was vastly too late. “Absolutely no Irish person was consulted about this proposal until it was a fait accompli. There was never any attempt to attach an ‘Irish political earth wire’. Nobody on the Irish Commissioner’s team was informed in any kind of time,” one Brussels official told the Irish Independent. “The press conference to announce the measures was scheduled in parallel with the process to approve them by the European Commission. It represented a total systems failure.” Despite her midnight about-turn, she is seen as having triggered a Northern Ireland crisis in efforts to tackle a vaccine supply crisis. In the hot-house that is EU Commission HQ, a nasty game of ‘pass the parcel’ has kicked off. An early attempt by some of Ms von der Leyen’s staff to blame Trade Commissioner Dombrovskis proved ill-judged. The Commission boss will not find it easy to pass this parcel and she’s under direct attack from her predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker. It’s unusual for a senior office holder to publicly attack his or her immediate successor. But he did just that in a speech on Tuesday night when he criticised the EU’s sluggish vaccine roll-out and suggested that an "EU-first approach” was reminiscent of a certain Donald Trump. Last night she was called upon to give an account of herself to the main political groupings, but calls for her resignation are rather rhetorical and exaggerated – for now at least. The reality is that she still has support from Berlin and Paris. She was trying, perhaps a little too hard and artlessly, to do their bidding in curbing movement of AstraZeneca vaccines, after the company failed in EU supply pledges. Right now the Commission President is getting it from all sides. To her critics, it is a lesson in humility, and a reminder that she needs to stop trying to run the Brussels machine with just the help of a handful of advisers." [URL unfurl="true"]https://m.independent.ie/opinion/comment/no-irish-eu-official-was-consulted-before-the-northern-border-clause-was-triggered-40044946.html[/URL] [/QUOTE]
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Dr Ursula von der Leyen
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