Amid the hail of accusations that the EU wanted to put a hard border on the island of Ireland last Friday, it's worth pointing out what the ill-fated resort to Article 16 was about:

2/ Under the Commission's trade mechanism, any Covid vaccines leaving the EU for third countries would need export authorisations, ie to ensure vaccines were not being exported which were actually part of an avanced purchase agreement between member states + pharma companies
3/ Any movements of exports from one member state to another would NOT have required such an export authorisation
4/ Because of the NI Protocol, Northern Ireland would typically have availed of NOT having to had export authorisations for any vaccines being sent there from Belgium (or wherever)
5/ However, someone in the Commission spotted the fact that, also under the Protocol, there was unfettered movement of goods between NI and GB
6/ That was seen as a loophole / anomaly / problem. So therefore, the Commission reached for the safeguard measures in Article 16 of the Protocol.
7/ Yes, we all now know that was a horrendously disproportionate solution, sledgehammer meet nut etc, and we've seen the fall out
8/ However, the practical effect would simply have been that vaccines destined for NI - in a hypothetical scenario - would have needed export authorisations before they left the factory in Belgium (or wherever).
9/ There was nothing in the regulation which stated such vaccines should be stopped at the land border

More from Tony Connelly

More from World

I'll bite, Mr. Gray. We can even play by your rather finicky rules.

Let's begin with some of the things you have said about Xinjiang, notably absent from your more recent media appearances, but still present in your blog about your 2014 biking trip.


The following is taken from an ongoing list I keep of people who have been to Xinjiang and written/spoken about their experiences. It is separate from the testimony of detainees and their relatives I also keep. Jerry is on this

Jerry, your article for CGTN, as well as your various Medium pieces, belabor themselves to emphasize the smoothness of your time in Xinjiang. Why did you leave out so many details from your log of your 2014 trip? They seem relevant.

For example, would CGTN not let you speak about Shanshan, the town that evidently disturbed you so much?


Why, pray tell, after noting how kind and hospitable Xinjiang police were to you in 2019 for CGTN—and how you were never told where you could or could not go—would you omit these details?

You May Also Like