The joint EU-UK committee established by the withdrawal agreement to oversee the working of the Irish protocol held its first meeting by video conference this week, with little sign of progress.

Both sides published a report of the meeting which was essentially a restating of positions, with the EU going into more than three times as much detail as the UK.

The main issue has been how the UK would implement the inspection parts of the agreement in relation to products travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland. The EU statement was specific, emphasising that there was “an urgent need to present a detailed timetable and proceed with the necessary measures, such as preparing for the introduction of customs procedures for goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, and ensuring that all necessary sanitary and phytosanitary controls as well as other regulatory checks can be carried out in respect of goods entering Northern Ireland from outside the EU”.

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UK statement

The UK statement was more succinct, saying that the “UK reiterated our commitment to protecting the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in all respects, and to upholding our obligations under the Northern Ireland Protocol”.

From the respective statements, it is clear that the EU is looking for evidence of how the UK will deliver the checks it is expecting. However, the UK prime minister has been more ambiguous on the UK carrying out checks on goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland and it doesn’t appear that there was a meeting of minds in this week’s first meeting of the committee. A further meeting is expected in June.