Ireland welcomes EU reversal on triggering Brexit clause

FILE PHOTO: Ireland’s Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Micheal Martin speaks as he arrives to attend a face-to-face EU summit amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown in Brussels, Belgium December 10, 2020. John Thys/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin welcomed a decision by the European Union executive not to invoke the safeguard clause in the Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol, having earlier expressed his concern to Brussels over initial plans to do so.

The EU on Friday abruptly reversed course on a plan to use emergency Brexit measures to restrict exports of COVID-19 vaccines through the Irish border to the United Kingdom after it sent shockwaves through Belfast, London and Dublin.

Martin’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, also welcomed the move and said lessons should be learned: “The Protocol is not something to be tampered with lightly, it’s an essential, hard won compromise, protecting peace and trade for many,” Coveney said on Twitter.

Reporting by Padraic Halpin, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien