Pro-EU parties in the assembly have questioned the decision to apply the Stormont brake over the packaging and labelling of chemicals.
Stormont’s unionist contingent has unanimously backed a plan to trigger the mechanism agreed as part of 2023′s Windsor Framework that ensures the temporary halting of changes to regulations on EU goods applied in Northern Ireland.
Applying the Stormont brake requires the signatures of 30 MLAs from at least two parties, prompting a 14-day consultation period in which the British government considers whether its application is justified.
The DUP triggered the process for first time on Thursday and subsequently received support from the Ulster Unionists, along with TUV MLA Timothy Gaston and independent unionist Claire Sugden.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson said industry representatives had warned that an updated EU law affecting the labelling of chemicals would create additional trade friction on goods moving west across the Irish Sea.
He said if the regulations were applied it would “further fracture in the UK internal market, driving up costs for manufacturers and creating a chill factor for GB-based companies currently supplying the NI market”.
But Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan said that in recent weeks the assembly’s Windsor Framework democratic scrutiny committee received evidence and assessments of the potential impact of the new regulations from the British government, departmental officials and industry experts.
“Having carefully considered all the evidence the committee did not conclude that there would be a significant impact to everyday life of people in the north as set out in the Windsor Framework,” he said.
Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole acknowledged issues around packaging and labelling of chemicals but said there were far bigger challenges facing people in Northern Ireland.
“We warned that the so-called Stormont brake would be used for crude partisan purposes and so it has proven,” said the SDLP MLA.
“Where there are issues with this EU law, we certainly support efforts to smooth and mitigate their implementation and will engage with both the EU and UK on that basis but the idea that this is going to cause persistent harm to the people of NI is unsustainable and wrong-headed.”
He accused those applying the brake of “obstruction to the detriment of a debate about how we maximise the opportunities from our position in relation to Europe”.
