31/05/2023 - Yesterday, the European Council adopted three regulations, agreed with the European Parliament, aimed at implementing the joint and agreed solutions with the United Kingdom in the field of public health, agri-food products, plants, and pets, pharmaceuticals, and certain steel products.
These regulations implement the European Union's desire to quickly achieve the solutions reached on February 27, 2023, in the political agreement with the United Kingdom regarding the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol.
The three regulations will enter into force after publication in the Official Journal. They will be complemented by a series of implementing acts to be adopted by the Commission.
The new rules will make it much easier to transfer a range of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland if they are intended for final consumption. At the same time, safeguard measures will be put in place to prevent these goods from entering the EU single market and to ensure the protection of public health, as well as the interests of EU consumers.
The new rules on sanitary and phytosanitary measures, which protect public health and the health of animals and plants, will allow for the transfer of retail agri-food products from Great Britain to Northern Ireland intended for final consumption, with certification requirements and minimal checks, once the agreed guarantees are in place.
Another set of new rules will ensure that all medicines, including new medicines, are available in Northern Ireland at the same time as in the rest of the United Kingdom. Medicines will be placed on the market according to the UK's authorization rules and procedures, in addition to the solution adopted by the EU in April 2022 for the supply of generic medicines to Northern Ireland.
The third new legislative act will make it possible to transfer certain categories of steel from Great Britain to Northern Ireland based on EU tariff quotas. Northern Irish businesses will no longer have to pay a 25% tariff related to EU safeguard measures.
For more information, please visit the website: EU-UK relations: EU takes further steps to implement the Windsor Framework
