Read on Twitter
Long thread. My view - the UK has since 2016 underestimated what goods border checks mean, and still does. That makes it very difficult for the EU to respond effectively to suggestions the operations of the protocol must be seriously changed. Especially after a month. https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1357723914835808256
If the UK government went to the EU and said "here are three things that if you do we will resolve internal UK issues like unionist opposition to the protocol" then that is interesting. "Here are 20 things and we still don't guarantee we won't be back for more" is almost useless.
Let us be blunt the EU fear the UK wish to erode the Northern Ireland protocol to nothingness with a series of demands that never end. So yes this is about disruption, but it is also about trust. And that needs the UK side to change - such as the PM to admit there are checks.
That post-2016 UK constant, that we seem to expect something for nothing in our negotiations. Don't want to expose the difficult reality of trade offs. Which is merely pain postponed, and the EU does not believe it is their job to rescue a dishonest UK government.
So yes, the tensions in Northern Ireland over the protocol are well understood in Dublin and Brussels. That's not the primary issue preventing progress. It is the UK government's handling that is the problem. And the Gove letter did not help. Let us see what next week brings.
