EU restarts legal action against UK over Northern Ireland protocol

The European Union has restarted legal action against Britain over its move to rewrite unilaterally the post-Brexit regulations on Northern Ireland.

EU Brexit commissioner Maros Sefcovic on Wednesday said one frozen case against the UK for past breaches of the withdrawal agreement had been relaunched and two more over other undelivered treaty obligations would begin.

Under the action being taken, the UK will have to explain why it had failed to check imports from Britain to Northern Ireland within two months, or face potential fines from the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The 27-member bloc is also filing letters of formal notice of action over a lack of border posts and data sharing. However, any action won’t take place over the “illegal” legislation until it becomes law, which could take 18 months or longer.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Sefcovic urged UK lawmakers to stop the Conservative government from pushing the Bill through and provoking a trade war.

“We are now bringing the argument also into the debate, which I’m sure will be in the House of Commons and House of Lords, that there is a better way to solve these issues than having these legal disputes with the EU,” he said.

“We expect that also the debate in the British parliament in the House of Commons and House of Lords will take some time. Of course, if this draft bill will become the law, then of course I cannot exclude anything. But we are not there yet.”

In response to threats from London that Britain could retaliate by ignoring ECJ rulings, he said warned that doing so would “just piling one breach of international law on another”.

“This way forward, is it compatible with the proud British traditions of upholding and respecting the rule of law and international law in that regard? So that’s, I would say, the political question I’m throwing up and, of course, how other potential partners would look at that the UK when they will be negotiating that agreement.”

“Opening the door to unilaterally changing an international agreement is a breach of international law as well. So let’s call a spade a spade: this is illegal.”

Under the deal agreed and hailed by Johnson and his ministers in 2019, Northern Ireland in effect stays in the single market and the EU’s customs rules are applied down the Irish Sea to avoid a border on the island of Ireland.

Under the planned new legislation, the government would scrap checks for firms selling goods from Great Britain destined for Northern Ireland rather than the EU.

However, the legislation would also allow firms in Great Britain exporting to Northern Ireland to choose between meeting EU or UK standards on regulation, which are expected to increasingly diverge.

EU officials argued that the plan threatened the single market and that there was ample evidence that the current arrangements and the failure to implement controls had already encouraged smuggling.