“This is causing economic disruption in Northern Ireland and diversion of trade.”<\/p>\n
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He went onto claim: “It also lacks any democratic basis, since it has subjected the people of Northern Ireland to foreign rule with no say by them and denies them a vote in laws made for them by the EU, in apparent contradiction of rights guaranteed them by the European Convention on Human Rights.”<\/p>\n
This protocol has meant a staged implementation of border checks for some goods crossing between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which effectively creates a so-called border in the Irish Sea.<\/p>\n
This is incompatible with the European Convention of Human Rights, which is meant to provide freedom of trade. The Government claims that around 20 percent of all border checks in the EU now occur in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
The disruption with the protocol has led to two DUP leaders being ousted within a period of five weeks. Members of the unionist community in Northern Ireland feel the protocol treats them different to the rest of the UK.<\/p>\n
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Lord Moylan said of the bloc: “We need to be vigilant for the future that any new co-operation we undertake with our economic neighbour is based on preserving our status as an independent nation.<\/p>\n
“Something the EU will always find difficult, since its own conception of itself is that co-operation with neighbouring states involves their subjection in some form or other to EU laws.”<\/p>\n
This comes after Brussels previously refused to give UK based financial firms equivalence-based EU market access – a move Lord Moylan says is an example of “unnecessary barriers to trade.”<\/p>\n
This was despite the UK and EU starting with near-identical financial regulations, as Britain carried over laws from its time within the bloc.<\/p>\n
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In April, Lord Moylan shared a Daily Telegraph comment piece by Barnabas Reynolds, global head of the Financial Services Industry Group, who urged Britain to abandon hopes of EU equivalence and build its own regulations.<\/p>\n
The peer commented: “A very wise piece.<\/p>\n
“We need to stop fretting about the fact that the EU is erecting unnecessary barriers to trade and use it as an opportunity to reframe our regulations to suit us.<\/p>\n
“Equivalence is dead – the UK has to lose EU shackles.”<\/p>\n