The EU is preparing to grant limited concessions to the UK to try to defuse the row over the Northern Irish Brexit deal and make progress towards a more comprehensive settlement.
Brussels is expected to announce a further “grace period” of at least three months to allow sausages and other processed meat made in Britain to be sold in Northern Ireland.
Next month it will also change EU law to allow medicines licenced for use in Britain to be prescribed in Northern Ireland without being reassessed.
It will also exempt guide dogs from rules that require pet owners travelling between Britain and Northern Ireland to get an animal health certificate within ten days of a trip.
Under the Northern Ireland protocol the province in effect remains in the EU single market so checks and controls are needed on incoming products to ensure compliance with Brussels rules.
The EU has accused the UK of failing to carry out the checks it agreed to when the deal was signed while the government has claimed it did not expect Brussels to be so inflexible in its interpretation of the agreement, which it says is undermining the peace process.
The Irish government has been attempting to broker a compromise that would see fewer checks in return for UK commitments on maintaining existing EU food and veterinary rules.
Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice-president and chief EU negotiator, told Northern Ireland assembly members yesterday that Brussels was prepared to act to reduce checks required under Brexit’s Irish Sea border to an “absolute minimum”. “We are willing to consider taking bold steps if the UK government demonstrates a clear and concrete commitment to implementing the protocol in full,” he said.
Under the proposals Brussels will move to address some of the concerns of Unionists in the province who have called for the protocol to be scrapped.
Sefcovic has persuaded EU single market countries, led by France, to relax rules over the use of medicines and treatments in Northern Ireland.
The Times revealed that cancer treatments approved for use by the NHS in Britain would be blocked in Northern Ireland because the medicines are not yet approved in the EU.
The concession will mean European rules change to give an exemption for all treatments and generic drugs used by the NHS to preserve an “essential state function” in Northern Ireland.
