EU temporarily withdraws staff from Northern Irish ports over Brexit security concerns - video [_link]

— The Guardian (@guardian) February 2, 2021

UK to seek lifting of Brexit controls in Northern Ireland [_link]

— Guardian news (@guardiannews) February 2, 2021

The continuing story of Brexit ... getting a clean break!

'Sapere aude'

Brussels still hasn't explained Irish border blunder, Dublin says

"In simple terms, you do not touch the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland without full consultation with the people who are most impacted by that, i.e. the Irish government, the British government and, perhaps most importantly, political leaders in Northern Ireland," Coveney said.

"To do anything to undermine the protocol without talking to the Irish government about the consequences of that is a serious mistake. But lessons have been learnt," he said.

When asked how such a fundamental diplomatic mistake could have been sanctioned, Coveney said the EU still hadn't explained what happened.

"I can only make a guesstimate," he said, offering what he considered the most likely scenario.

"Unfortunately what seems to have happened here it that some technical or legal expert pointed to a potential problem, whereby the Northern Ireland protocol could be used to ensure that vaccines could be exported from the EU into Great Britain without any authorization requirement, because the protocol provides unfettered access into Northern Ireland," Coveney said.

"They made a serious political mistake in the direction they took to solve that problem. I don't think this involved a political discussion by commissioners," he added.