One of my consolation readings is Dr Richard North's daily blog on Brexit. North was a founder member of UKIP and actually produced a detailed, and probably workable, plan for a gradual withdrawal from the EU over a period of a decade (which has been ignored). He has been in despair over the mess that our government has created over the past 3 years.
But apart from all that, he absolutely knows about EU regulations and laws. Not only does he have working knowledge but he co-wrote a book about the EU, so well researched.
He blogged on the matter of the Irish border very recently; it was part of a critique of the recently published Alternative Arrangements Commission (AAC) report.
The sticking point for any wild ideas of inspections away from the border, scanning of lorry contents, trusted trader schemes, et al is the need for physical checks (known as Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) checks ) on live animals, plant material, etc being transported across the border. I'll try to pick out the relevant parts of a long blog post.
First, his critique of the AAC report's suggestion:
In this, we can cut to the chase with an important example that we have rehearsed before, represented by the sixth recommendation which asserts that, "Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) checks should be carried out by mobile units away from the border using the existing EU Union Customs Code or a common area for SPS measures".
It really does say something of all these "23 technical experts" that they are all prepared to put their names to an extraordinarily basic error, in lumping SPS checks with the Union Custom Code (UCC)
Anyone with any serious acquaintance with the EU's application of SPS checks, through its system of Official Controls, will know that these are framed and implemented outside the UCC, and do not depend in any way on the code. In fact, for relevant products, customs control cannot start until SPS clearance has been given, fees have been paid and the appropriate certificates have been issued.
And the reason why these checks cannot be done away from the border:
Of course, no more does this apply to their recommendation that SPS checks "should be carried out by mobile units away from the border", which relies on claimed "geographic flexibilities", which they the AAC asserts are "allowed in the Union Customs Code and BIP Regulation". These, they claim, permit the border authorities, "to move any facilities away from the border and to use mobile units to conduct checks where possible".
It is another mark of the utter amateurism of the AAC that, in addition to miscasting the UCC (which makes no reference to SPS checks, much less affording any "geographic flexibilities"), the "23 technical experts" allow the reference to this "BIP Regulation" to stand. As I pointed out earlier, there is no single BIP Regulation as such.
But even if there was, the law cited, Commission Decision 2009/821/EC isn't it. This Decision makes no reference whatsoever to the criteria for siting what are currently known as Border Inspection Posts (BIPs). For the law currently in force, one must go to Council Directive 97/78 which requires, apart from certain very limited exceptions, BIPs be located in the "*immediate vicinity of the point of entry*" into the territory of the Member State
This is Regulation (EU) 2017/625 which repeats the requirement that the newly designated Border Control Posts (BCPs) should be located "in the immediate vicinity of the point of entry into the Union". And supplementing this law is Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1012 which does allow limited "geographic flexibilities" arising from certain geographical constraints But, as the recital sets out:
Geographical constraints should be those that result from the natural characteristics and landscape of the point of entry, and the distance from the point of entry should not exceed what is strictly necessary to overcome the difficulties caused by the geographical constraints. Furthermore, that distance should not be such as to pose a risk to human, animal and plant health, animal welfare and the environment. Specific geographical constraints should include those that may cause major transportation constraints like, for example, high passes with roads unsuitable for the movement of animals and goods or causing significant delays in their movement.
Not with even the wildest of imagining can the law be taken as permitting the use of mobile control teams, where the only reference to their application is for visiting teams to deal with "unprocessed logs and sawn and chipped wood" in multiple BCPs. For the rest, Article 47 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 requires official controls to be carried out on the relevant products "at the border control post of first arrival into the Union"
The whole blog is here for anyone interested in technical detail rather than optimistic assumptions:
www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=87307
If anyone thinks that this can be airily dismissed as no being important can wave goodbye to any trade in agricultural and horticultural products with the EU.
And remember that the installation of any hard structure on the NI/Ireland border is a target for trouble because of the breaking of the GFA.