Northern Ireland

EU to demand real-time data to ease goods checks in North

Move comes amid tensions as Britain threatens to unilaterally scrap the protocol after seven-month hiatus in negotiations

Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission negotiator on the protocol, put forward a package to reduce checks on British goods entering the North by up to 80 per cent. Picture: Getty

The EU is going to demand “real-time” data from the British government on goods moving into the North in return for reduced inspections.

It comes at a time of heightened distrust between the two sides on the flashpoint issue of the Northern Ireland protocol which governs the checks and controls on goods crossing the Irish Sea.

The EU was recently supplied with some data from the British government, but it was in a format officials ...