Responding to comments by European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic in Queen’s University this morning Jim Allister said:
“While Sir Jeffery Donaldson said he was “encouraged” by his meeting with Mr Sefcovic yesterday, comments by the EU Commission’s Vice President in QUB will be of no comfort to Unionists. He explicitly claimed that the Protocol was not the problem when all Unionists can see that it is. It is clear that the EU is only prepared to countenance cosmetic tinkering with the Protocol. They have no intention of reversing the constitutional change which has left Northern Ireland in a foreign single market for goods, under a foreign customs code, subject to foreign laws and overseen by a foreign court. These are the key issues.
“With Mr Sefcovic ruling out removal of the role of the European Court of Justice in Northern Ireland, it is clear that the EU is unwilling to give up any of the sovereignty which it has claimed over this part of the United Kingdom.
“Unless or until this changes the situation will be intolerable. There can be no border separating us from the rest of the nation. Brexit is not complete and the will of the people of the UK will not have been delivered unless or until ALL of our country is free from the shackles of Brussels.”