Are the Brexit talks breaking down?

A technical matter regarding the Irish Sea border threatens to unravel negotiations, writes Sean O'Grady

The EU wants an office in Belfast; the UK says no (iStock)

Obviously we all have bigger things to worry about than the future relationship between Britain and the European Union, but the world is still turning. Or not, in the case of progressing the talks between London and Brussels. Though no one is taking much notice, Brexit remains far from “done” – and things are going backwards.

Despite the absence from the scene of Boris Johnson and Michel Barnier, the chief EU negotiator, because of Covid, and despite the novelty of video meetings in virtual conference rooms, there have been some discussions among the various participants, legal texts exchanged and the odd optimistic noise can be heard.

Yet there are ominous signs emerging that even the existing UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement, signed after much trauma last October and since ratified, might now unravel. An apparently innocuous technical note has just been issued by the European Commission, laying out the scale of the work that needs to be done to make the complex Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement work in practice.