EU wants ‘constructive’ relationship with Truss

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Vice President Maros Sefcovic both congratulated the incoming UK prime minister after her victory in the Tory leadership race.

However, the commission also made clear it expected Ms Truss to implement Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol in full, insisting the position in Brussels regarding the contentious post-Brexit trading arrangements had not changed “one iota”.

Among the many thorny items in Ms Truss’s in-tray is the ongoing dispute with the EU over the protocol – a set of trading arrangements that have created checks on goods moving into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

As Foreign Secretary, Ms Truss angered the EU by tabling domestic legislation at Westminster that would empower ministers to unilaterally scrap the arrangements that the UK signed up to as part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

The European Commission has insisted such a move would breach international law.

During the Tory leadership campaign there was also speculation that Ms Truss may move to suspend the protocol when she enters No 10 – by triggering a mechanism called Article 16.

Many unionists are vehemently opposed to the protocol, claiming the Brexit checks on goods moving across the Irish Sea are undermining Northern Ireland’s place within the UK.

The DUP is currently blocking the formation of a power-sharing executive at Stormont in protest at the protocol and the party has called on Ms Truss to maintain her hard line against the controversial arrangements when she becomes PM.

Mr Sefcovic, who is the EU’s lead negotiator on the protocol impasse, tweeted: “A positive relationship is of great strategic importance. I stand ready to work intensively and constructively with my new UK interlocutor to foster such a partnership, in full respect of our agreements.”

Ms von der Leyen did not specifically refer to the protocol in a tweet of congratulations but said she wanted a “constructive relationship” with Ms Truss “in full respect of our agreements”.

“The EU and the UK are partners,” she wrote.

“We face many challenges together, from climate change to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I look forward to a constructive relationship, in full respect of our agreements.”