Mr. Maro? ?efovi:

I thank Senator McGreehan for her questions. My first stop when I was visiting Northern Ireland was to visit the Border community at Flurrybridge. For me, seeing the film of the community 20 years or 25 years ago, and comparing it with the thriving business community there now, was like day and night. Anyone who has any doubt about the importance of what we do here should see that short video to see what kind of difference it makes on the ground. It would put the importance of the issues we are debating into very sharp and fundamental perspective.

When it comes to moving the goalpost, indeed, it is not easy. We need this discussion with the UK because sometimes I have a feeling that when we come up with the solution to one problem, additional problems are brought to the table. Therefore, because I did this sort of negotiation before, my personal experience is you have to generate the momentum and you have to show that you can not only bring problems to the table but you can take them off it by solving them. That would be my approach. We do not have to solve everything at the same time but we have to solve them one by one, rebuild trust, show that we can do it and develop that momentum which is needed for the difficult questions.

When it comes to the dealing with the protocol, clearly the most democratic test of the functioning of the protocol would be the democratic vote in 2024, and eventually then every four years when the Assembly will decide the fate of the protocol. Therefore we have to demonstrate to the people in Northern Ireland that it works, that it is useful, that it creates jobs, that it brings new growth, that it generates investments and that it improves the situation on the ground. That is the aim.

We listen to the calls for better participation of the Northern Ireland stakeholders in the dealings on the protocol through the consultation working groups and through the special consultations we are ready to do for Northern Ireland where they can present their unique perspective on ongoing or future legislation and where we would have this special way of communicating with them. There is huge interest in the European Parliament to talk to the Northern Ireland MLAs but at the same time I am fully aware of the sensitivities around this issue and, therefore, we want to have oral agreement with the UK and with Northern Ireland representatives. There is much we can do. We presented some of the ideas in our papers and we are ready to go very far if we have this line of thinking and to approach it from this positive angle. The most precious currency in dealing with the UK on this issue, and we have plenty of it, is unity of European Union. The issue on the table is not only important for Ireland or the European Commission, it is important for all EU member states that we still have the same guidelines by the European Council, which is the summit of the Heads of State and Government who gave us very clear lines, a clear mandate on how we should engage, what our priorities should be and what the most important issues are and we are following them. I am very glad we have that very clear unwavering support for a constructive approach and solidarity with Ireland. It is very clearly based on the Single Market but also on all that flexibility demonstrated vis-à-visNorthern Ireland.