THE EU’S FORMER Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said that Brexit has been a “lose-lose” event.

His comment comes a year on from the trade agreement he helped strike, after years of complicated fraught negotiations between the EU and UK.

The UK’s fiscal watchdog said earlier this year that the impact of Brexit on the UK economy will be worse in the long run than the Covid-19 pandemic, with Brexit expected to impact the UK’s GDP by 4% and the pandemic by 3%, according to current forecasts.

Meanwhile, trade between Northern Ireland and Ireland has increased in both directions as trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland is stifled compared to before due to new post-Brexit trade rules contained in the Protocol.

Barnier said today: “One year later, Brexit remains a lose-lose decision.”

Last year’s Christmas Eve deal put in place the arrangements for continued trade between the EU and the UK outside the Single Market and Customs Union.

The deal also secured details of the Protocol for Northern Ireland – a special trading relationship that keeps Northern Ireland within the Single Market but aligned to the EU’s custom rules, which has caused some disruption to trade in practice.

Talks on how to resolve this disruption have been ongoing – the UK has appointed a new lead negotiator Liz Truss to steer talks on the Protocol with the EU’s Maroš Šefčovič, after the intractable civil-servant-turned-politician David Frost resigned as a minister over Covid regulations.

Talks on the Protocol and the oversight of the European Court of Justice is to continue in the New Year.

Barnier said today that the European project “deserves to be defended and reformed”, adding that it needed the same unity and energy as the Brexit trade talks were given. 

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Following the signing of the Brexit trade agreement, Barnier launched an unsuccessful run for the French presidency – for which the election will take place next April.

Although the trade deal meant the potential chaos of a no-deal Brexit was avoided, relations between the UK and EU have remained difficult: the UK has been locked in a bitter dispute with France over fishing rights and migration across the English Channel.

With reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha.