Lord Empey: The Belfast Agreement is being systematically violated by the backstop
As Lord Bew has so skilfully set out (‘To protect the Good Friday Agreement, the Irish border backstop must be temporary,’ Jan 29), the Belfast Agreement is being systematically violated by the backstop proposal.
Some of the functions of North/South bodies and agreements will be subsumed by an unaccountable Committee over which Stormont and the people of Northern Ireland will have no say.
The Ulster Unionist Party have been highlighting the threat posed by the backstop to the integrity of the Belfast Agreement since 2017. However, when unionists raise concerns about the Belfast Agreement being infringed it is largely met with indifference.
Indeed, since “special status” was first mooted, we have put our concerns to the prime minister, Michel Barnier and his team, Guy Verhofstadt and representatives across Europe.
The Irish government never tires of telling us that it is a ‘co-guarantor’ of the Agreement. Well, if that is the case why don’t they step up and realise that they have to find other ways of securing the integrity of the single market?
In that endeavour Ulster Unionists will have no trouble helping.
Already we have put forward ideas. If we have a Common Travel Area for people can we find ways of developing that for goods? Of course we can. If there is a will there is a way.
Lord Empey, House of Lords