Letter: ​Unionism must stand firm and resolve the core issue - an end to EU law

It is these two issues which are also, in truth, the most central of the DUP’s seven key tests (test one and three).

All the other tests in truth flow from these two core issues: solve them, and the rest will follow. Fail to solve them, and the rest will fall.

And these two tests share one common issue: EU law. The central issue therefore is whether EU law continues to apply to goods moving within the UK internal market (of course, for those trading with the EU, there is no objection that there ought to be a requirement to comply with EU standards).

If EU law continues, in the words of Lord Justice McCloskey “with unabated force”, then the Acts of Union cannot be restored, and the Irish Sea border cannot be removed.

It is EU law which causes both the breach of Article 6 and as a condition precedent necessitates a GB-NI customs border.

In order to remove EU law, it requires disapplying the overriding supremacy of section 7A of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which- acting as a conduit pipe- facilitates the Protocol and Framework flowing into domestic law.

You cannot remove EU law without halting (via neutering section 7A) the flow of Article 5 of the Protocol into domestic law, or fundamentally altering the text of the Protocol/Framework itself.

Nor can you remove “customs processes” for GB-NI, because Article 9 (2) of the joint committee decision 01/23 (which flows into domestic law via section 7A) creates this obligation, even for the deceptively labelled ‘green lane’.

Whilst all that may seem terribly technical, it circles back to one simple question: does EU law still apply?

It is foolish to suggest unionism should return to Stormont without resolving that issue. Once you return, the legal obligation is to implement with full force the Protocol/Framework.

You do not seek to fight fire with petrol. Or, put another way, it is illogical to suggest there can be common ground between the arsonist and the fireman.

Unionism must stand firm, with honesty as to what resolving the core issue requires: an end of EU law.

Jamie Bryson, Centre for the Union