Brexit

UPDATED: EU to grant UK ‘grace period’ extension in N.Ireland sausage spat

cde.news desk 23 June 2021, 12:50 · 1 min read

epa06348499 A Union Jack flag and a European Union flag are arranged as a backdrop for Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and European Council President Donald Tusk, both unseen, to pose for the media during their bilateral meeting within the Eastern Partnership summit at the European Council Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 24 November 2017. The summit brings together EU heads of states or government with six former Soviet states Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. EPA-EFE/CHRISTIAN HARTMANN / POOL

European Union member states have informally agreed to grant Britain a three-month extension to one of the contentious aspects of the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol, Irish national broadcaster RTE reported on Wednesday.

Britain asked Brussels for the extra time last week to resolve a dispute over whether chilled meat products such as sausages, produced in the mainland United Kingdom, can continue to be sold in Northern Ireland.

RTE reported that member states informally agreed to do so subject to Britain continuing to align with EU food safety rules for the duration of the extension, and that both sides keep exploring a long term solution to the issue of food consignments leaving Britain for Northern Ireland.

Photo: EPA-EFE/CHRISTIAN HARTMANN / POOL