Pharmaceuticals from the UK to be shipped to Northern Ireland

The EU agreed on Tuesday to rules allowing pharmaceuticals made in the United Kingdom to be shipped to Northern Ireland, reversing a post-Brexit treaty requirement that items delivered to the UK province be EU-compliant.

The move is intended to ease tensions between Brussels and London over Northern Ireland, which will be subject to EU customs under the rules of a protocol in the treaty that took effect last year.

“Today, the (EU) Council adopted a directive and a regulation to secure the continued supply of medicines to Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Ireland, and Malta,” the body representing the bloc’s member states said in a statement.

From the beginning of this year, the newly established EU directive will be in effect.