EU boss Marcos Sefcovic warns UK not to seek ‘confrontation’ on Brexit terms

Britain must not seek a “path of confrontation” with the EU as tensions rise over fishing rights and the Northern Ireland protocol, the bloc’s lead negotiator has warned.

Marcos Sefcovic, the Vice President of the European Commission, urged his British counterpart Lord Frost to reconsider the EU’s proposals to reduce checks on goods entering Northern Ireland.

The protocol was designed as part of the Brexit deal to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, but it has sparked anger among Unionists due to the trade barriers it has created on goods crossing the Irish Sea.

Writing for the Telegraph, Mr Sefcovic said he feared the UK could scupper an agreement by refusing to budge on its stance that the European Court of Justice should not have an arbitration role in the protocol.

He wrote: “I am increasingly concerned that the U.K. government will refuse to engage with this and embark on a path of confrontation”.

Mr Sefcovic said the EU had gone the “extra mile” with their offer to resolve the dispute, adding: “We have our limits, too, as we must protect the integrity of the EU’s Single Market and the interest of the 27 member states.”

Separately, Lord Frost claimed on Sunday that the EU has “destroyed cross-community consent” in Northern Ireland through strict enforcement of the Protocol. He said the bloc’s behaviour had “begun to damage the thing it was designed to protect - the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.”

It comes ahead of fresh negotiations between the pair this week, as tensions rise between the UK and France over post-Brexit fishing licences.

Paris last week threatened to bar UK fishing boats from some ports and tighten customs checks on lorries entering the country unless more licences are granted for their small boats to fish in Britain’s waters.

French authorities also detained a British trawler at the port of Le Havre. Paris claimed the vessel did not have the correct licence to fish in French waters.

President Emmanuel Macron said that unless Britain made a “significant move”, his government would introduce more stringent port and border checks from Tuesday.

After a 30-minute meeting at the G7 Conference in Rome, Mr Macron told Boris Johnson that the ball is “in your court” as they prepared to take part in the UN Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow on Monday.