DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is set to press the Taoiseach on post-Brexit arrangements.
Mr Donaldson is due to meet Taoiseach Micheál Martin in Dublin on Friday.
He described the visit as part of a “series of engagements where I have challenged key stakeholders about the deep damage being caused to progress in Northern Ireland by the Protocol”.
Unionists have expressed concern at the new trading arrangements distancing the North from the rest of the United Kingdom.
Sir Jeffrey – time for Brussels to change its tune https://t.co/9P9q633ANd via @duponline @J_Donaldson_MP
Advertisement— DUP (@duponline) August 26, 2021
Loyalists are staging a series of ongoing protests against the Protocol.
Speaking ahead of his meeting with Mr Martin, Mr Donaldson said: “The economic border in the Irish Sea violates the Act of Union and has damaged political, economic and cultural stability within Northern Ireland.
“It cannot be sustained.
“Rather than protecting the 1998 Belfast Agreement and its successors, the Protocol breaches those Agreements.
“Whilst the Prime Minister and Lord Frost have recognised the flaws of the Protocol, tangible progress has been slower. The economic disruption of the UK Single Market continues. We continue to make our case in London.”
Mr Donaldson said Dublin has also got a “key role to play”.
“It was the then taoiseach Leo Varadkar who insisted on such arrangements with his fellow EU leaders. I will be asking the Taoiseach to recognise the flaws of the Protocol and join with us in arguing in the corridors of power for change,” he said.
“It is time for Brussels to change its tune. It either changes course or it will have to take responsibility for Northern Ireland drifting backwards.
“I am in the business of moving Northern Ireland forward and building a shared and united community, but the Protocol currently stands in the way of progress.”
Speaking during a visit to Derry, Sinn Féin president Mary-Lou McDonald said she welcomed engagement between Mr Donaldson and the Taoiseach, but warned the Protocol cannot be “wished away”.
She said: “The Protocol isn’t going away, the Protocol is necessary. Where there are challenges or difficulties, they can be figured out through the mechanism of the joint committee but any suggestion that you can wish Brexit away or the consequences of Brexit away, just isn’t living in the real world.
“In these times people need to see political leadership, political representatives that have the commitment to all of our people to work constructively and to work together at moment when it is necessary, and this is one of those necessary moments.”
