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The European Commission move to invoke Article 16 over the AstraZeneca vaccine contract row prompted surprise and anger among politicians in Northern Ireland.
First Minister and DUP leader Arlene Foster described the EU move as an “incredible act of hostility”.
“By triggering Article 16 in this manner, the European Union has once again shown it is prepared to use Northern Ireland when it suits their interests but in the most despicable manner – over the provision of a vaccine which is designed to save lives,” she said.
“At the first opportunity the EU has placed a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland over the supply chain of the coronavirus vaccine,” she added.
Ms Foster said she would be encouraging the British prime minister Boris Johnson “to act and use robust measures including Article 16 to advance the interests of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom”.
“With the European Union using Article 16 in such an aggressive and most shameful way, it is now time for our government to step up,” she said.
The SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the EU response to the AstraZeneca quarrel was “disproportionate” and that it had committed a “grave error of judgment”.
Added Mr Eastwood, “We face a common threat. Our response to this virus, and to the supply of vaccines, should be characterised by our common values. I am a proud European because I believe in cooperation, compromise and solidarity across national borders. This decision sadly places the Commission at odds with those values.
“Front line workers who have stretched themselves to exhaustion to keep people safe and administer a vaccine programme will find their hearts breaking at political manoeuvres in stark contrast with their solemn oaths to do no harm.
‘Utterly bogus’
Ulster Unionist Party leader Steve Aiken said the EU had unilaterally “blown out of the water” the argument that the British government should not itself invoke Article 16 to override the Northern Ireland protocol and ensure the smooth flow of goods from Britain to Northern Ireland
“Despite EU claims that they always acted in the best interests of Northern Ireland, when push came to shove, the EU looked after itself,” he said.
Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister said the EU action is the “most telling illustration imaginable that for the EU the Protocol is a plaything to be exploited when it suits its selfish interests”.
“The idea that the EU cares anything for Northern Ireland or its people is exposed as utterly bogus,” he said.
Mr Allister said the fact that the EU had “so unilaterally invoked Article 16 to serve its selfish purposes” left the British government “with no excuse for not itself now invoking it to protect the vast disruption to trade that we are day and daily experiencing from GB”.
“I trust the supporters of “rigorous implementation” of the protocol will now see what sort of a charlatan organisation it is dealing with,” he added.
The Chairman of the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Simon Hoare said there was a need now for “calm, stability and levelheadedness”.
“Vaccines from GB to NI, which account for 100 per cent of Northern Ireland’s coronavirus vaccines, will continue so the public have no reason for fear. But it’s unconscionable folly to escalate a contract dispute with a supplier to affect the so recently agreed, and still bedding in, NI protocol,” he said.