Vegan sausage rolls. Photo / Supplied
Vegan sausage rolls could be banned in Northern Ireland because of the Brexit deal unless they are renamed.
Today, the European Parliament was expected to vote in favour of an amendment that will forbid plant-based food from being sold under “meaty terms”.
Producers in Northern Ireland will instead have to come up with new terms such as “tubes” or “discs” because of a push from conservative European Union lawmakers to appease farmers.
However, Greggs vegan sausage rolls will escape the EU name ban because of a loophole in the Brexit treaty.
Robin Swann, an MP for the Ulster Unionist Party, said: “This regulatory absurdity highlights the urgent need to scrap the Irish Sea border and ensure NI businesses operate under UK, not EU, law.
“For those who remember the 1984 episode of the satirical television programme Yes Minister, the plotline in which the EU would require the renaming of the British sausage as an ‘emulsified high fat offal tube’ seems to be fast becoming a reality.”
The EU ban will apply because of the Windsor Framework, which means that Northern Ireland must follow some EU rules that Britain does not, including on food labelling.
The treaty created the Irish Sea border, introducing checks on British goods, but kept the land border with the Republic of Ireland invisible after Brexit.
But it also created a loophole that ensures that Greggs vegan sausage rolls, and other similar products made in Britain, can continue to be sold in Northern Ireland under their proper United Kingdom name.
Greggs makes the pastries in Britain before they are shipped to 24 bakeries in Northern Ireland. The goods cross the Irish Sea border using the “green lane” for goods deemed not at risk of crossing into Ireland, and the UK trusted trade scheme for light-touch customs controls.
That means that they can be sold in Northern Ireland as vegan sausage rolls under the terms of the Windsor Framework.
Timothy Gaston, the member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for the Traditional Unionist Voice, said: “Once again, Northern Ireland finds itself bound by rules it did not make, subject to decisions in which no Northern Ireland representative has a vote.
“While the European Parliament debates what a sausage roll can be called, businesses here must brace for yet another layer of regulation that applies in Belfast but not in Birmingham.”
Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs, said: “This shows just how hollow Labour’s much-vaunted ‘EU reset’ – which includes regulation of foodstuffs – really is. We shouldn’t roll over on this.”
It is expected that the centre-right European People’s Party, the largest in Strasbourg, the hard-right and some liberal MEPs will back the ban.
That would guarantee a majority in what would be a victory for European conservatives against Greens and liberals.
Céline Imart, the centre-right lead MEP who put forward the amendment, said: “A steak is made of meat – full stop. Using these names only for real meat keeps labels honest, protects farmers and preserves Europe’s culinary traditions.”
Thomas Waitz, an Austrian Green MEP, said: “This is a cultural war, and this is a cultural war that has been started by the far-right”.
The Northern Ireland Assembly can delay the application of EU law by pulling the “Stormont brake”, if it has enough support from legislative assembly members.
The mechanism has been used twice before but both times the UK Government decided that it did not meet the threshold of having a “significant impact specific to everyday life of communities in Northern Ireland in a way that is liable to persist”.
A Government spokesman said: “We will not comment on hypothetical scenarios or speculation.”
The European Commission was asked for comment.
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