evidence: The contested enforcement of the Northern Ireland Protocol [...] Pending the introduction of these IT facilities, fears of recurrent disruptions in the supply chains of the province of Northern Ireland have prompted unionists from the DUP (Ian Paisley Jr) to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which allows the European Union or the United Kingdom to take "appropriate safeguard measures" - in this case the suspension of controls - "if the application of this Protocol leads to serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties which are likely to persist, or to a reorientation of trade". Alerted to the risk of food shortages, Brandon Lewis, UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, was reassuring and said that he would work to ensure the flow of trade. But the announcement on January 27, 2021 of reduced deliveries of vaccines for the European market by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca was to trigger renewed tension between the European Union and the United Kingdom. The first reaction of the European authorities was to use the safeguard clause provided in Article 16 of the Protocol to set up, for greater transparency, a mechanism to control exports of vaccines produced at the Belgian site of Seneffe to the United Kingdom and especially to Northern Ireland. [...] [21] Colin Murray, "Oven-ready or half-baked? Implementing the Northern Ireland Protocol", UK in a changing Europe, 17/2/2020.