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| - Britain on Monday urged the EU to compromise over special Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland before the province enters a tense summer of events marking the Protestant ascendancy over Catholics. Brexit minister David Frost noted that tensions over the "Northern Ireland Protocol" had already caused violent unrest and cost Arlene Foster her job as first minister and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party. Accusing Brussels of taking a "legalistic, purist" view of post-Brexit trade, he said that anything that undermines Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord "is a significant problem for us and should be a significant problem for the EU as well". Fears have grown that tensions could soar again around July 12, when pro-UK unionists annually commemorate events in the late 17th century that entrenched Protestant rule over the northern part of Catholic Ireland. London is not imposing the date as a formal deadline for the EU to agree to compromise, Frost said, but "we all know that the late spring and summer in Northern Ireland can sometimes be turbulent. "I would like to feel we will be making progress with the EU in good time before that date," he told a committee of MPs. "I think it's helpful if people can see that there are solutions available, sooner rather than later." Historical events are particularly fraught this year, which marks the 100th anniversary of Northern Ireland's creation when southern Ireland became effectively independent of Britain. The post-Brexit protocol effectively keeps Northern Ireland in the European Union's customs union and single market for goods. Many pro-UK unionists believe it has created an "Irish Sea border" which casts the region adrift from mainland Britain as the price of complying with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. London has unilaterally extended various provisions for checks on goods including food crossing the Irish Sea, sparking legal action by Brussels, and Frost is negotiating what he hopes will be a package of longer-term changes. He urged the EU to address goods at "genuine risk" of entering the bloc's single market via Ireland, not "superficialities", highlighting the risk of cancer drugs failing to reach patients in the north. But the EU maintains that Prime Minister Boris Johnson knew what he was signing up for in the Brexit treaty, including the protocol, even as he assured unionists that there would be no change for businesses. "If we are to achieve our goals, then we need to implement this agreement," EU spokesman Daniel Ferrie said earlier Monday. "This is a shared responsibility, and we expect the UK to uphold its political commitment." He also attacked "various unhelpful comments in the press" after Frost, writing in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, told the EU to "stop the point-scoring and work with us". In a speech Monday, Irish premier Micheal Martin insisted the protocol was "the best possible outcome in the circumstances" as he also demanded that Britain stick to its side of the bargain. "We need good faith and cooperation -- and we need to understand that the first reflex when there is a problem should be to seek engagement, not to promote a dispute," he said in Dublin. jit/phz/jj
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