Quote:
Originally Posted by Paddy1
Did notification take place? Is there a consultation?
Considering is a very ambiguous word here. Either side will have positions that they might take. I don't think that means they have to inform the other party until that position becomes policy. Boris is considering exactly the same thing. Has he notified the EU?
Yes, they put their position up on their web site, as they do with lots of documentation that has been drafted. They don't just post policy. There's no doubt it was a consideration to trigger Article 16 but no action has taken place to initiate it.
There is no process in progress that can currently lead to anything as there is no consultation taking place.
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The impact of the
protocol itself is required to have had an actual impact, not article 16 in isolation. Article 16 does not say "If the application of this
Article leads to", it says "Protocol". The protocol is meant to enable free flow of goods between NI and Ireland, so Article 16 could be read in this instance as "If the free flow of goods between NI and Ireland leads to the movement of EU-owned vaccines moving to NI". Again, the "leads to" states that it must already be happening, it does not say "might lead to". Article 16 cannot be invoked purely on the basis of a hypothetical example, and an unlikely one at that.
The much more likely hypothetical example, would've been that UK vaccines would've been taken from NI to Ireland.
The regulation is headed "
Brussels, 29.1.2021 , SEC(2021) 71 final".
The regulation wasn't just about invoking article 16, but the whole control of vaccines to other countries, and not just the UK.
Action was taken to start it. How else were the EU countries that were going to have to implement it, starting within a matter of hours. They were going to have to implement it on the 30th, and the regulation was issued on the 29th.
The invoking of Article 16 was never publicly raised beforehand, only the possibility of tracking and control of vaccine shipments.
Nobody at all was talking about invoking article 16 in connection with vaccines. That was quickly shut down after people found out about it after the regulation was actually issued. Nobody was able to shut it down before the 29th.