Mr. Maro? ?efovi:

I thank the Deputy Howlin for these questions. I repeat that no decision was taken. Article 16 was not activated. It was a draft proposal which was quickly corrected. It would be better not to engage in the blame game anymore. We acknowledge the mistake was made and we have apologised. It is important to look to the future and at how we can work constructively together to guarantee the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland the benefits and possibilities the protocol presents for new business opportunities, jobs and economic growth, if one focuses on that aspect.

The clearing house is the structure we are setting up in the Commission. It is also because of the enormity of the trade and co-operation agreement. The implementation of the agreement requires 19 specialised committees. For example, transport will be covered by three of them. There will be massive implementation work to be carried out. Of course, it has to be co-ordinated and properly organised. Therefore, we need several things.

Each Commissioner will now have one cabinet member who will look after our relationship with the UK and implementation of the protocol. The Commissioners, the Directorates-General, and our secretariat general will serve as a clearing house to have horizontal oversight and make sure we are well co-ordinated. Once the issues are properly identified, they will be brought to the attention of the political level.

We have regular meetings with member states. There are expert meetings of an EU-UK Brexit working party. I am in the European Parliament on a biweekly basis, in briefings and discussing the issues with the UK co-ordination group. This now an almost regular item on the agenda of ministers for European affairs and will continue as such.

What are the shortcomings I pointed out to Michael Gove in our conversation and my response to his prior communication? The first thing which is very important for the integrity of the Single Market is the border control posts. I have to say they are not yet fully operational. Official controls at the border control posts, BCPs, are not performed in compliance with the withdrawal agreement protocol and European Union rules. We see few identity checks and a limited number of physical checks, other than on live animals, fish and plants. We agreed on certain packaging labels, including UK health certificate declarations and so forth, which, again, is not done as we agreed.

It is very important for everyone involved in trade to work on making customs clearance and operations as smooth as possible. We need fully operational border control posts, BCPs, but also access to IT systems as agreed and as the UK unilaterally declared it would do in December. We still do not have access to real time operations in IT systems. The most important ones for us are import clearance systems, CDS, which would help us to better assess how the trusted trader scheme or simplified health certificates are being used.

The trusted trader scheme was one of the key asks of the UK in our November and December discussions because it believes it will be possible to guarantee supermarkets in Northern Ireland are fully supplied through this scheme. We agreed to that but we do not know how much this scheme is used. We agreed on a simplified version of the health certificates but we do not know how this flexibility is being used, due to non-access to IT systems.

We have been creative when it comes to exports from Northern Ireland to Great Britain. We agreed we would use the ferry documents but they had to contain the equivalent information, which the export declaration would usually have. This is also not happening. I could go on and on about parcels, mail and so on.

This is also an odd happening. I can go on and on about the parcels, the mail and so on. There are many things that we agreed we would do. We did our utmost on our side. Now we also need the response from the UK authorities so we can really assess how these flexibilities are working. Have they been sufficient? What is the problem on the ground and how can we find the solution?

Concerning the ongoing dialogue, as I said, it is quite clear that the EU-UK-Ireland-Northern Ireland relationship requires day-to-day care. We must all be focused on it and we need to do our best. An important part of that is having frank and open communication. I am ready to be part of such discussions. I have already mentioned several times the meetings and discussions we will have this week. If there is an invitation to the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, of course, I would be very happy to participate and provide the necessary answers. That is the response to Deputy Howlin's questions.