Act of hostility: N Ireland s FM Foster accuses Brussels of acting in despicable manner The so-called “vaccine war” has intensified after the EU was accused of erecting a “hard border” between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic to stop the province becoming a back-door to Britain as a way of circumventing an export ban on Europe-made jags. After the EU introduced controls that could block the export to the UK of millions of Covid vaccine shots made in Europe, it invoked Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a controversial section of the UK-EU trade deal, which means it can unilaterally introduce border controls on goods.