Mr. Maro? ?efovi:

I appreciate the Senator's insights because he lives in Belfast. I had the opportunity to visit Belfast in September and it was very important visit for me. We had two days full of meetings with civic society, business leaders and political leaders, but I also had the chance to talk to the brave and courageous women from the Shankill Women's Centre, to the people in the street and the students at the university. They had a huge impact on me and on the thinking of our team, in seeing how important this is. Peace was never taken for granted in Northern Ireland, but there was a calm after the Good Friday Agreement, and it is suddenly being discussed again. It is our huge political responsibility to listen to these voices and do our utmost to consolidate and stabilise the situation it and to resolve the most outstanding issues the people in Northern Ireland are telling us about.

That was how I based my response. I heard about the medicine supply everywhere. I heard a clear wish and a request for us to do our utmost to reduce and cut the red tape for customs clearance, to reduce the sanitary and phytosanitary, SPS, checks and to find the best way to involve Northern Irish representatives in the dealings on the protocol. That was the logic we followed, and if we can deliver on these four areas, it would create the positive political momentum that would help us to solve other problems.

We need to see that there is also good faith from the other side, that there is an engagement and that there is a step towards us so we can resolve these issues. We thought that by November of this year, we would not have to come back to this. In the negotiations with the UK, there was a very clear sequence. First we had to settle the orderly withdrawal of the UK from the EU, so our attention and focus was on the withdrawal agreement. Then we had to find a lasting peaceful solution for the island of Ireland, which was the most difficult chapter to negotiate. Although in the end, we succeeded in the form of the protocol for Ireland and Northern Ireland. Then we proceeded with the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, TCA. If we were to find ourselves in the difficult situation of Article 16 - I would not like to go into hypothetical scenarios, because hopefully we can prevent it, and we do not know how the UK Government is intending to do this - it is quite clear that it would have very serious consequences for Northern Ireland. I felt clearly that people wanted us to solve the problems, to calm down the situation, and to offer legal certainty, calm, peace and predictability. We definitely would not achieve that through Article 16. It would also have serious consequences for our relationship with the UK. The sequence was the withdrawal agreement, the protocol, and then the TCA. What would the TCA hang on and on what would it be based, if these two founding stones were suddenly pulled out? That is why we put so much effort into providing concrete solutions.

The Senator is right that this issue is very important not only for EU institutions but for all the capitals. I talk regularly to the Council. It features regularly at the General Affairs Council. It is part of the President of the Commission's discussions with all Heads of State and Government. The Senator is also right in that we are getting a lot of inquiries from the United States, from Congress and the administration. It was also an issue on the agenda when the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, met the President of the United States, Joe Biden, just a couple of days ago. That is how high the political game is, and therefore it is important to match it with our political responsibility to deal with this issue.

On busting the myth, I agree that we can always do better. A good thing to do would be to increase our communication and be very transparent. I appreciate the close co-operation with the Irish Government on all levels. I will have a lunch tomorrow with Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, here in Brussels. We are in regular contact. There are also regular contacts with the Taoiseach and our President. I stress that I very much appreciate the enormous help of Commissioner McGuinness because she is very good with the press and the stakeholders. We are co-operating on all issues very closely. This is the best answer I can give at this stage because we still think that energy spent, especially political energy, should be focused on positive developments on the future. This is our primary focus in our discussions with the UK.