Responding to European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič’s announcement that he will be meeting business and civic leaders from Northern Ireland on Thursday, Ulster Unionist Leader, Steve Aiken OBE MLA, said:
“If Maroš Šefčovič is genuinely committed to protecting the Belfast Agreement, then he cannot continue to ignore the genuine and legitimate concerns of unionists who not only negotiated the Belfast Agreement, but supported and endorsed it. The current approach of the EU and Irish Government pays scant regard to building mutual trust and respect.
“His announcement that he is going to engage with business and civic leaders may be a crude attempt to give the Protocol a gloss of community support, but his continued side-lining and dismissal of the views of the pro-Union community is trampling all over the Belfast Agreement.”