Ulster Unionist peer, Lord Empey, has been appointed to the House of Lords European Affairs Sub-Committee on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland. The first meeting of the Sub-Committee took place on Wednesday.
Lord Empey said:
“I am glad to have been appointed to this Committee because for too long politicians across these islands with little connection or understanding of Northern Ireland have been talking over the heads of its representatives who have genuine and legitimate concerns about the imposition of the Northern Ireland Protocol. The Protocol is causing economic and societal difficulties and I`ll be doing my best to ensure that those concerns are listened to and addressed.
“Speaking as someone who was actually involved in negotiating the Belfast Agreement, the Protocol has undermined the principles of what we negotiated in 1998. I hope that the EU and the UK Government will now start talking and listening to those of us who negotiated the Agreement to get a better understanding of what was negotiated and why it was negotiated.
“I`m not sure if it’s deliberate misinterpretation or genuine naivety which has skewed so much of the narrative currently being spun about the Agreement by some politicians. Whatever it is, they are playing fast and loose with an Agreement which was arrived at through years of painstaking negotiation. Many unpalatable issues were addressed and re-interpreting the Agreement to suit selfish political agendas will cause untold harm and difficulties in the weeks and months ahead.”