The tough Lord Frost leaves the Cabinet and the Irish Protocol negotiation, joining Johnson’s dissidents
David Frost, minister for relations with the European Union in the British Government, formalized his immediate resignation on Saturday night. His departure coincides with a change of tone in the negotiation on changes to the Irish Protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement, which stalls progress in pending areas after the signing, now a year ago, of the trade and cooperation agreement.
In his resignation letter, Lord Frost states that “the process of building a new relationship with the EU will be a long-term task.” The former diplomat reminded the prime minister that they had agreed to his departure earlier this month and that it would have taken place in January. But the ‘Mail on Sunday’ published a leak about Frost’s resignation and forced the official announcement.
The British negotiator held his last meeting last Friday with the vice president of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic. At the end of it, the British recognized that the goal is no longer a radical reform of the Protocol but the achievement, in January, of an “interim agreement” and the postponement of the most difficult issues.
The need for a quick agreement, which allows at least the normalization of the sale of medicines in Northern Ireland and the reduction of bureaucratic procedures in the movement of goods between the rest of the United Kingdom and the province, is due to the fact that there are regional elections in May and, if the blockade is prolonged, it is unlikely that the shared Executive required by the 1998 peace agreement will be rebuilt.
Sefcovic, in an interview with the ‘Financial Times’ on the same Friday, urged the two parties to resolve “politically sensitive issues” in January. If they succeed, it would allow the relationship between the UK and the EU to be reprogrammed. The Slovak commissioner expressed the ambition to increase collaboration in areas such as security or climate change.
The blocking of the Protocol is causing difficulties for British participation in scientific research projects, complicating obtaining visas for artists, closing the door to changes in immigration policies. The pulse has fostered a climate of mistrust, which, according to Irish Commissioner Mairead McGuinness, may linger. “The name will change, but matters will not change,” he told Irish television on Sunday.
Challenge
Sefcovic on Friday praised the new tone in the British position. The text of Frost’s statement, released after the meeting, cuts back on previous ambitions to settle for a temporary agreement, but reiterates the big goals, including eliminating the jurisdiction of the European Union Court of Justice in the province, despite that it remains in the common market.
Senior British officials involved in the negotiation had already warned European correspondents two weeks ago that the Government had given up on resolving the disputes over the jurisdiction of the Court now. There is a change in tone and modulation of the negotiating strategy, but London affirms that the supposed elimination of 80% of customs controls and 50% of paperwork is misleading and that the jurisdiction of the Court will create problems sooner or later.
The negotiation seems very difficult, although politicians and academics have proposed solutions that seem reasonable. It is a tug-of-war between London and Brussels and the British Government has now avoided combat. The economic and political circumstances of the country do not recommend opening more sources of conflict. Johnson now has to choose a new Brexit minister or return those functions to the Foreign Office.
As for Frost, in his farewell letter to Johnson he justifies it because he does not agree with the restrictions to combat the pandemic and with the failure to take advantage of the EU march to boost an economy “with light regulations and low taxes” . The ‘Mail on Sunday’ says it also disagrees with the policy on climate change. He aligns himself with the dissidents of the libertarian right, or ‘Thatcherist’. And it is very popular with party affiliates.
Lord Frost: Diplomacy with Rough Manners
Born in Derby 56 years ago, the now Baronial Member of the House of Lords was born in Derby and won a scholarship to study for free at a prestigious Nottingham school. If the landscape of this child portrait is that of a worker ‘brexit’, its brilliance led him to the University of Oxford. He got very good grades studying Medieval European History and Medieval French.
After university he found accommodation in the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They sent him to Brussels, he worked in the US embassy, he was ambassador to Denmark. His wife, an English soprano, followed him around the world. After his divorce, in 2018, he married a diplomat. Has no children. He temporarily left diplomacy and worked as a promoter of Scotch whiskey.
He defended belonging to the European common market, alerted voters to the march, before the 2016 referendum, that it seemed very unlikely that a better relationship with the European Union would be achieved than the one enjoyed by the members. But he collaborated with pro-Brexit groups. With the then new Foreign Minister, Boris Johnson, he was united by the idea that ‘Brexit’ was above all a question of sovereignty.
His defenders describe him as a great strategist, who sealed a very complex negotiation; weighed down by the already prime minister, Johnson, who did not read the papers. Frost also shouldn’t have noticed the letter of the Irish Protocol. They also praise that he speaks clearly. For example, saying that the UK’s membership of the European community for four decades has been “a long bad dream”, while negotiating the Protocol.
In September he stated in Lisbon that London preferred consensus on the Northern Irish question. Two days later he gave an interview to ‘Politico’, in which he rejected the EU proposals because, according to him, they had not made an effort to prepare them, and asked the EU to study his with application, “because they are the place where we have to end ».
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