EU offers to ease Northern Ireland border checks amid Brexit row

Proposal comes after the UK said the current policy on Northern Ireland – known as the protocol – should be ripped up.

The European Union has offered to reduce customs checks and paperwork on British products intended for its province of Northern Ireland in the hope of averting a new Brexit clash with the United Kingdom.

The offer was part of a set of wide-ranging proposals designed to solve problems in post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland that London says are reigniting inter-community tensions.

A team of EU negotiators on Wednesday delivered the plans to London, a day after the UK’s Brexit minister David Frost said the current policy on Northern Ireland – known as the protocol – should be ripped up.