EU's Ambassador to the UK João Vale de Almeida Speaks to T&G on the EU-UK Relations and More

João Vale de Almeida, the EU ambassador to the UK, has told Times Radio there are serious concerns about the level of trust between the EU and UK over the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol.

Speaking to Tom Newton Dunn and Jack Blanchard on T&G on Sunday, he said:

The levels of trust are low right now so I think we need to improve those levels of trust. Because what our British friends asked from us was pragmatism. And we have proven that we want to be pragmatic, but pragmatism requires trust. If you don't have trust and if you create frustration then these are not the best conditions to find consensual solutions.

When asked how the EU will respond if there is not an improvement in relations he refused to rule out trade tariffs:

I don't want to anticipate worst case scenarios but we are ready for worst case scenarios, of course. And there are ways and means within the new agreements that we made, the withdrawal agreement on one side and the trade and cooperation agreement, to address those issues. I firmly believe and I hope that we will not get there. But if we need to get there, we'll get there.

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And on claims that a fifth of all EU border checks are carried out on the border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, he said:

There's a certain degree of statistical manipulation in that because it's very difficult to compare what you do in Rotterdam when you have to deal with big containers coming from China and what you have to do in Northern Ireland with very small parcels and small items. So the comparison is not valuable. What we have shown in Northern Ireland is a degree of pragmatism that we have shown nowhere else in the world.

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