Mr. Maro? ?efovi:

I thank the Chair and the honourable members for inviting me to speak to them. It is always a pleasure to engage with this committee. Now it is really the occasion because the past few months have been momentous for the island of Ireland. Most recently, I had the pleasure to be with you in Dublin in the Abbey Theatre to participate in all the discussions and celebrations and to watch fantastic performances marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement or Belfast Agreement. A few days after, I travelled to Belfast, where we had the opportunity to discuss, with the international community and the key architects of the agreement, the lessons learned and the importance of this agreement for peace on the island of Ireland. This was a worthy occasion because we could together remember and recall this historic agreement and how it brought peace. For so long, there had been violence and discord. I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak with some of the people responsible for making the agreement a reality: the negotiators from Ireland and Northern Ireland; the former US President, Bill Clinton; the former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern; the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair; and also the Taoiseach and Tánaiste, who came to the location from Ireland.

Remembering the past is most valuable if it helps us to shape the future. As I have often said, and I think I said it in our last discussion in this committee, if the past 25 years have been about peace in Northern Ireland, the next 25 years should be about both peace and prosperity. In fact, this was at the centre of my engagements with business stakeholders in Belfast. One was done jointly with the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin. We had a very good discussion with the Northern Ireland Business Brexit Working Group. The second was done jointly with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, and the US special envoy to Northern Ireland for economic affairs, Joe Kennedy III. In both meetings, we heard how important it is for business leaders to have reassurances on legal certainty and predictability because they see them as key ingredients of a thriving business environment. Therefore, on both occasions, there was huge interest in our new agreement, but also we felt there was a huge investment appetite around the table, as well as a readiness to maximise the opportunities afforded by the Windsor Framework for Northern Ireland and Ireland for the economy of all of Ireland.

I am very pleased to be able to exchange with the committee on the framework. As we have discussed in the past, the practical challenges experienced on the ground in the operation of the protocol in Ireland and Northern Ireland required workable solutions. Together with our UK partners, we managed to find those solutions. As the committee knows well, on 27 February, the European Commission and the UK Government announced the political agreement in principle on the Windsor Framework. It was then formalised in the withdrawal agreement joint committee meeting on 24 March in London. That day, I had the honour of signing the joint committee decision laying down the arrangements relating to the Windsor Framework on behalf of the European Union. I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment, and also of solidarity with the people living on the island of Ireland.

What we put in place that day is a framework that provides practical solutions to the everyday problems being encountered by people and businesses in Northern Ireland. This would not have been possible without the support and close co-operation of all EU member states and, in particular, Ireland. I want to express my sincere gratitude to you, to the Irish Parliament and the Irish Government for your trust throughout this process.

In full respect of the legitimate interests of the EU and the UK, we found solutions in a number of areas: food, medicines, customs, VAT and excise, state aid, tariff rate quotas, governance and stakeholder engagement.

The movement of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, which are not at risk of entering the EU Single Market, has been made smoother for trusted traders. Consumers in Northern Ireland will find the same foods on supermarket shelves as in the rest of the UK, while safeguards will also be in place including labelling and sanitary and phytosanitary, SPS, inspection facilities. A permanent solution has also been found to ensure that people in Northern Ireland have access to all medicines at the same time and under the same conditions as in the rest of the UK. The voices of stakeholders in Northern Ireland will be heard more clearly through regular engagement at each level of the withdrawal agreement structures. There is a new emergency mechanism called the Stormont brake. This will allow the UK Government, at the request of 30 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, to stop application in Northern Ireland of amended or replacing provisions of protocol-related EU law that may have significant and lasting impacts specific to everyday life there. The mechanism would be triggered by a well-defined process set out in the joint committee decision on the Windsor Framework. Finally, a matter of key importance to us is that the role of the European Court of Justice has not changed. It remains the sole and final arbiter of EU law. We now have a strong political commitment to solve future challenges together, before they turn into disputes. We must now focus on the implementation of the framework and its joint solutions. The British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, and I have agreed to work intensively and faithfully to implement all elements of the Windsor Framework. On our side, the Commission has already transmitted to the Council the legislative proposals necessary to implement our part of the framework. Our co-operation with both the European Parliament and the Council remains excellent. We are in constant contact with our UK partners who are likewise working hard on their implementation work.

I say to members of the committee that the Windsor Framework is an opportunity for us to turn the page and move forward in a spirit of mutual trust and shared objectives.

To turn to the EU-UK trade and co-operation agreement, TCA, we look forward to working with the UK to fully exploit its potential using the structures established by the agreement. On 24 March, the British Foreign Secretary and I co-chaired a meeting of the partnership council, which oversees the implementation of the TCA. We agreed to advance implementation of the agreement in different areas including energy, security and the UK's participation in Union programmes.