EU 'not seeking political victory' in Northern Ireland Brexit dispute, says top negotiator Sefcovic

The European Union remains committed to a prosperous relationship with the United Kingdom, despite the deepening crisis over Britain's plans to unilaterally rewrite the post-Brexit agreement, chief negotiator Maros Sefcovic has told Euronews.

"We are not seeking political victory in Northern Ireland," the vice president of the European Commission told Shona Murray in the Global Conversation. "We just want these issues to be solved in a way that we can cement what I hope will be again, a good, prosperous relationship with the UK, with creating all these opportunities for Northern Ireland."

But he also warned the British government that it risks damaging the Northern Irish economy if it allows the conflict to continue.

"I think that one of the clear consequences would be uncertainty," he said. "I think if you talk to Northern Irish businesses, what you hear most often from them is please get to the table, find the joint solution, solve it. We need legal certainty. We need predictability for our businesses. Our investors are hesitating because they do not know if an eventual company they would invest in, in Northern Ireland, would be producing for five million, for 50 million or for 500 million".

And he said trust in the UK had been "severely damaged" by Britain's drafting of a bill aimed at removing previously-agreed customs checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from England.

Shona Murray, Euronews Brussels correspondent: Well, despite six years of difficult and often painstaking negotiations, Brexit is still as acrimonious as ever. We're now said to be in historically new low relations between the EU and the UK following the British government's decision to unilaterally breach part of the Northern Ireland Protocol - the