EU link to its reasons for invoking Article 16 mysteriously disappears

A link to the EU’s website which was working earlier on this evening has now ceased functioning, with no obvious explanation.
By Adam Kula
Published 29th Jan 2021, 20:01 BST
Updated 29th Jan 2021, 20:28 BST
A nurse preparing a Covid jabA nurse preparing a Covid jab
A nurse preparing a Covid jab

The now-broken link (https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2021/january/tradoc_159398.pdf) had set out, in densely-written legal language, the reasons for the activation of Article 16.

READ MORE DETAILS HERE: Brexit: What exactly IS Article 16 – and why has it provoked such fury?

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But whilst the link no longer works, the News Letter has found the original text using Google’s ‘cache’ system.

Basically, the move has been interpreted widely as a bid to stem the flow of coronavirus vaccines into Northern Ireland – apparently preventing them being moved from the Republic into NI, or directly from the EU to NI.

It says: “Whilst quantitative restrictions on exports are prohibited between the Union and Northern Ireland, in accordance with Article 5 (5) of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, this is justified as a safeguard measure pursuant to Article 16 of that Protocol in order to avert serious societal difficulties due to a lack of supply threatening to disturb the orderly implementation of the vaccination campaigns in the Member States.

“Due to the urgency of the situation, justified by the fast spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic, the measures provided for in this Regulation should be taken in accordance with Article 3(3) of Regulation (EU) 2015/479.(18)

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“It is considered that measures should remain in force until 31 March 2021, when full production capacity for COVID-19 vaccines in the EU has been installed and the risk of shortages and diversion of supplies will be reduced.”

Read more on this: ‘You literally could not make this up’: Unionist rage over Article 16

Click here: Brexit friction: Woman ‘unable to even move home from GB to Co Antrim’

Click here: Ian Paisley: Unionists need to drop wrist-slashing pessimism over Brexit

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