Northern Ireland protocol: EU likely to restart legal action against UK

The European Commission has said it is likely to recommence legal action against the UK in response to the legislation announced today by the British government which would set aside parts of the Northern Ireland protocol.

Speaking in Brussels this evening, the EU’s Brexit chief Maroš Šefčovič said that the EU had noted the UK government’s move with “significant concern”.

In addition to recommencing the existing legal action, Mr Šefčovič said, the Commission would also consider bringing new proceedings against the UK government.

He also said that the Commission would shortly “present in greater details our model for the flexible implementation of the protocol, based on durable solutions within the protocol.”

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“This will demonstrate that solutions to the issues raised by business and people in Northern Ireland exist,” he said.

But Mr Šefčovič also warned that the EU would consider further action against the British Government if it proceeds with legislation to set aside the protocol.

The EU move would effectively unfreeze a legal action taken by the commission last year when the British government unilaterally extended grace periods – a period in which the checks required by the protocol were no carried out – for aspects of the protocol.

The EU later suspended the legal action as a confidence-building measure during negotiations with London.

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However, the publication of legislation by the British government on Monday, which if passed would enable it to set aside parts of the protocol, has prompted the EU to prepare a series of retaliatory actions, beginning with the legal action.

He said that the EU “wishes to have a positive and stable relationship with UK” but said that “upholding the rule of law is imperative”. Any relationship, he said, “must be based on full respect on legally binding commitments we have made to one another.”

He said that the EU was not willing to renegotiate the protocol, but remained willing to discuss with the UK how the existing protocol can be implemented to ease unionist concerns.

But there was also a warning about the future of the overall trade agreement between the EU and the UK, with Mr Šefčovič saying the UK move “undermines the trust that is necessary for bilateral EU-UK cooperation within the framework of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement” – raising the prospect of an unravelling of the entire agreement if the row over the protocol is not solved.