LONDON – A United Kingdom government bill proposing an overhaul to a post-Brexit deal in Northern Ireland returns to Parliament on Monday, despite European Union warnings it is illegal and could spark a trade war.
Brussels threatened legal action after the UK government earlier this month introduced the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to unilaterally change trading terms for the British province.
A day before it gets its second reading in Parliament – the first opportunity for lawmakers to debate a proposal – the EU’s ambassador again warned London of reprisals if it is passed.
“We think it is both illegal and unrealistic. It is illegal because it’s a breach of international law, a breach of EU law and UK law,” Joao Vale de Almeida told Sky News yesterday.
“We are committed to find the practical solutions on implementation, but we cannot start talking if the baseline is to say everything we have agreed before is to be put aside,” he added.
The protocol – signed separately from the wider trade and cooperation agreement – requires checks on goods arriving into Northern Ireland from England, Scotland, and Wales, in order to track products that could be potentially headed to the EU via the Republic of Ireland.
This creates a customs border down the Irish Sea, keeping Northern Ireland in the EU’s customs orbit so as to avoid a politically sensitive hard border between it and EU member Ireland.
But pro-British parties in Northern Ireland say it is driving a wedge between London and Belfast and are refusing to join in a power-sharing government in the province until the protocol is changed. – AFP, June 27, 2022
