“The opportunity here is that we can start a new cycle in our relationship and move on.
“The risk is we add insult to injury.”
The tensions were stoked by Downing Street’s decision to unilaterally extend a grace period from EU red tape for Northern Ireland.
Brussels fears Lord Frost will spark tit-for-tat Brexit battles (Image: GETTY)
Lord Frost is Boris Johnson s top Europe adviser (Image: GETTY)
No10 will override customs controls on trade between Great Britain and the region to allow its businesses to adjust to the Brexit deal’s protocol to prevent a hard border.
To avoid a hard border, Northern Ireland will continue to follow EU rules for goods, meaning the introduction of some checks in the Irish Sea.
Brexit latest news: Rishi Sunak readies talks on £185billion global trade agreement | Politics | News express.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from express.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
| UPDATED: 16:24, Fri, Mar 5, 2021
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French MEP Nathalie Loiseau said Boris Johnson’s move to ignore EU red tape for the region showed Britain “doesn’t respect its commitments towards” the bloc. She was in a cabal of angry EU Parliament chiefs who have threatened to vote down the Brexit trade deal, which still has not been fully approved by the bloc. Ms Loiseau, a former French Europe minister, fumed: “Once again the British Government doesn’t respect its commitments towards the EU and choses defiance instead of trust.
“We’ve been very clear with market players, because this is a sensitive area,” she told a Politico event.
“We need to be clear and have been consistency clear how we will approach this, and we have been very clear with the United Kingdom as well.”
The top eurocrat suggested Brussels would not make a decision on granting Britain’s financial services sector to the single market before the extent of our post-Brexit reforms are made clear.
But she insisted even if the UK remains closely aligned to the EU’s rules and regulations, the bloc would seek to secure any advantages from the divorce.