EU’s Barnier: UK Must Accept What Brexit Means, Deal on Northern Ireland

EU’s Barnier: UK Must Accept What Brexit Means, Deal on Northern Ireland
Head of the Task Force for Relations with the UK, Michel Barnier walks ahead of a meeting at the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 9, 2021. Stephanie Lecocq/Pool via Reuters
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BRUSSELS—The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator said Britain must accept the realities of Brexit and it was the UK’s exit from the EU that had caused tensions between London and Brussels over Northern Ireland, not the divorce protocol.

Britain has been seeking changes to the Northern Ireland protocol of the Brexit deal after the European Commission sought briefly to prevent vaccines from moving across the open border between EU-member Ireland and Northern Ireland.