Mr. Barry Andrews:

There is an open goal here for the accusation of a democratic deficit in Northern Ireland because they will be impacted in perpetuity and in the future, notwithstanding the vote on the protocol at the end of 2024, by laws made in the European Union. They will not have any input or oversight, apart from what is in the joint consultative working group at this time and through the UK Government. Polling shows Northern Ireland does not necessarily trust the UK Government to properly safeguard its interests. That has brought the entire Northern Ireland people together on a political issue and unified them in a way almost unprecedented in Northern Ireland's political history.

As one of the academic papers pointed out, what is required is the earliest possible upstream visibility of proposed legislation coming from the European Union regulations and directives and how they might impact Northern Ireland. The sooner we can establish that, the sooner we can then counteract the narrative that Northern Ireland is forgotten about and yet is impacted. The sooner we can counteract the possibility of voices in the Northern Ireland Assembly claiming the first they heard of EU law was when it was being transposed into Northern Ireland law, the better. It is critical that we strategise for the better involvement of Northern Ireland parliamentarians in the scrutiny of upstream legislation in Northern Ireland.

That is really critical. It is not just me who is saying this. I have had widespread support in the Renew Europe group from MEPs from Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Germany for establishing something of this nature. It is a pretty open goal for us to able to achieve that. Let us see how the parliamentary assembly gets up and running. There is no significant interest or enthusiasm on the UK side in respect of the parliamentary partnership assembly. It did the trade and co-operation agreement but the UK attitude seems to be that this institution will not automatically be set up and that it really depends on whether both sides are inclined to do this. One thing this committee should watch carefully is to see whether that UK-EU parliamentary assembly is established because it is the only political level at which the trade and co-operation agreement can be overseen in all of its implications. It is our view as MEPs that the withdrawal agreement should also be overseen by the parliamentary assembly.

Regarding the question about the digital green certificate, again, it was supported with a very large majority in the European Parliament last week. What that did was give a negotiating mandate to the MEPs who will represent the European Parliament in discussions with the member states about how the regulation would look. Those discussions between the European Parliament and member states started on Monday. One of the things the European Parliament has called for, which I support, is for members states to not be in a position to impose quarantine measures on EU citizens travelling within the EU who are in possession of a digital green certificate demonstrating that they have been vaccinated, have recovered from Covid or have had a recent PCR test that was negative. We want to get tourism and hospitality up and running and we want people to enjoy their free movement rights under the treaties. There are also many cross-border workers. It does not affect Ireland but on the Continent, cross-border workers being able to go back and forth without having to observe some of the public health restrictions is a significant issue.

This has been widely accepted in the European Parliament. There is enthusiasm for it. There are some concerns about its interoperability with third countries, in particular the UK, but the UK is developing an app and it is its intention that it will be accepted in other countries. It has not specifically concluded that this will happen with the European Union but from our point of view, it is really important that it is something this committee keeps an eye on. The Irish MEPs are keeping a close eye on it as well.