{"id":186905,"date":"2021-06-01T07:56:53","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T07:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1436952"},"modified":"2021-06-01T07:56:53","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T07:56:53","slug":"new-dup-leaders-eu-comments-lack-adherence-to-reality-says-ambassador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/06\/01\/new-dup-leaders-eu-comments-lack-adherence-to-reality-says-ambassador\/","title":{"rendered":"New DUP leader\u2019s EU comments lack \u2018adherence to reality\u2019, says ambassador"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DUP leader Edwin Poots\u2019 allegations that the European Union is causing harm to Northern Ireland in the wake of Brexit lacks \u201cadherence to reality\u201d, according to the EU\u2019s ambassador to the UK.<\/p>\n<h5>Brexit means Brexit<\/h5>\n<p>Joao Vale de Almeida on 1 June dismissed Poots\u2019 claims that the arrangements are having a \u201cdevastating impact\u201d and are causing \u201cdemonstrable harm to every individual in Northern Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The diplomat argued that \u201cthere is no alternative\u201d to the Northern Ireland Protocol, after the DUP leader called for it to be suspended.<\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Image --><\/p>\n<figure id=\"embedded255387337\"><img src=\"https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/1b14e8d4bb053355370613b8ee6aea78Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjIyNjIzOTcz\/2.55387337.jpg?w=640\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/1b14e8d4bb053355370613b8ee6aea78Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjIyNjIzOTcz\/2.55387337.jpg?w=214 214w, https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/1b14e8d4bb053355370613b8ee6aea78Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjIyNjIzOTcz\/2.55387337.jpg?w=428 428w, https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/1b14e8d4bb053355370613b8ee6aea78Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjIyNjIzOTcz\/2.55387337.jpg?w=856 856w\" alt=\"Brexit\" data-title=\"Brexit\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Archive\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Archive\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Aaron Chown\" data-usage-terms=\"\" \/><figcaption>EU ambassador to the UK, Joao Vale de Almeida (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Image --><\/p>\n<p>Vale de Almeida told <em>BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today<\/em> programme:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>First of all I don\u2019t think those statements have adherence to reality. The EU is politically, financially and emotionally, I would say, committed to peace and prosperity for everybody in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>The protocol is not the problem, Brexit created the problem in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>The protocol is a joint endeavour of the UK and the European Union, it is British law, European law, international law, there is no alternative to the protocol.<\/p>\n<p>Even those that criticise the protocol do not present an alternative which is compatible with the terms of Brexit so the protocol is the solution, we need to implement it and we want to implement it with pragmatism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Poots has claimed the region is being used as a \u201cplaything\u201d by Europe and argued its ports will be subjected to greater checks on goods from Britain than take place in Rotterdam when the grace periods end.<\/p>\n<p><!-- TRACKING START GA --><script>(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','\/\/www.google-analytics.com\/analytics.js','ga');  ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'}); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Sam Blewett, PA Deputy Political Editor'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '6fe88f1b-5f0e-44e0-b3e0-2c00eba087fc'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:news,paservice:news:northern-ireland,paservice:news:uk'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'anonymizeIp', true); ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Edwin Pootsu2019 EU comments lack u2018adherence to realityu2019, says ambassador'});<\/script><!-- TRACKING END GA --><\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/uk\/news\/2021\/06\/01\/new-dup-leaders-eu-comments-lack-adherence-to-reality-says-ambassador\/\">The Canary<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joao Vale de Almeida argued that \u2018there is no alternative\u2019 to the Northern Ireland Protocol.<\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5588,892,9724,25614,286,4,5611,1395],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186906,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186905\/revisions\/186906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}