EU Vows to Take Legal Action Over UK’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill

The Northern Ireland Protocol – a set of post-Brexit trade arrangements - has long been a stumbling block in relations between the UK and the EU. Last month, London warned Brussels that if the bloc did not show the required flexibility to resolve the situation around the Protocol, the British government “would have no choice but to act”.

The European Commission’s vice president Maros Sefcovic has pledged to take action in order to ensure the legal implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP) in response to the UK government publishing a bill which overrides a post-Brexit trade deal.

“Unilateral action is damaging to mutual trust. Our aim will always be to secure the implementation of the protocol. Our reaction to unilateral action by the UK will reflect that aim and will be proportionate,” Sefcovic stressed.

He said that the EU viewed the UK's actions with "significant concern" and that the bloc is currently mulling over what steps are due to be taken.

According to the European Commission’s vice president, Brussels might begin with the resumption of legal proceedings against the UK, which it suspended in September, over breaching the withdrawal treaty of 2020.

Sefcovic added that apart from re-starting infringement proceedings against the UK, the EU would also look at launching further legal action to protect the integrity of the bloc’s single market, emphasising that renegotiating the NIP is out of the question.

“Renegotiating the protocol is unrealistic” and would bring “further legal uncertainty for people and businesses in Northern Ireland”, he pointed out.

The remarks came as Michelle O'Neill, the vice president of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, argued that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's attempts to override parts of the NIP are “in clear breach of international law”.

“All that Boris Johnson is doing today is to further political instability and create even more economic uncertainty for the days and weeks ahead. […] Regardless of the detail, he himself signed up to an agreement, he signed on the dotted line, and he is now legislating to breach that international agreement,” O'Neill asserted.

A spokesman for Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney in turn claimed that the bill on the NIP “marks a particular low point in the UK's approach to Brexit”, adding that it would "ratchet up" tension and breach the UK's international commitments.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, however, rejected the accusation and insisted that the British government "is acting within international law" when it comes to the proposed legislation on the NIP.

“We are changing the protocol, we are not getting rid of the protocol. I think that is important to acknowledge. We have to take the actions to protect the people across the United Kingdom, we have to take the actions to protect peace and stability in Northern Ireland - and that is exactly what we are doing,” she said.

The top UK diplomat also denied speculation that the legislation might not be enforced, and is being used for negotiating purposes, adding, “We are completely serious about this legislation.”

Johnson, for his part, argued that the bill would introduce "relatively simple" changes, which are "a relatively trivial set of adjustments in the grand scheme of things". The PM made it clear that it would be a "gross overreaction" by the EU if the bloc decides to retaliate by triggering a bilateral trade war.

He described the legislation as a "seaplane" that's "going to take off from the water because it's the right thing" and "the right way forward".

The Financial Times has meanwhile reported that BoJo is facing a rebellion from within his own ranks, with Tory backbenchers reportedly circulating a note warning that "breaking international law to rip up the Prime Minister's own treaty is damaging to everything the UK and Conservatives stand for".

UK Government Introduces NI Protocol Bill

The developments followed the British government formally introducing the bill in Parliament, proposing amendments to the post-Brexit trade deal in a bid to ease the flow of goods coming to and from Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK by removing "unnecessary" bureaucratic red tape.

Downing Street underscored in Monday evening’s press release that “the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill will allow the government to address the practical problems the Protocol has created in Northern Ireland in four key areas: burdensome customs processes, inflexible regulation, tax and spend discrepancies and democratic governance issues”.

The government asserted that these problems had undermined the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement on the Northern Ireland peace, also prompting the "collapse" of power sharing agreements in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Stormont.

The NIP bill stipulates that a check-free “green lane” would be set up for goods destined for Northern Ireland, while trucks taking goods through the region across the open border into the Republic of Ireland — and thus the EU single market — would face “red channel” checks.

The bill also ends the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in enforcing the NIP, even though ministers could allow UK courts to refer matters of EU law to the ECJ. The document would also remove EU control over state aid and value added tax in the region.

As part of the Brexit deal that went into force in January 2021, there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but under the NIP all goods and animal-based products coming from the rest of the British territories must be checked upon arrival to ensure their compatibility with EU sanitary regulations.

The UK government has repeatedly argued that the Protocol is not working, as it causes delays and interruptions to goods moving between the UK and Northern Ireland and irritates unionists, who believe their place within the country could be affected, thus threatening the Good Friday Agreement that in 1998 put an end to 30 years of armed conflict between the two.

In May, the situation around the Protocol worsened, as Sinn Fein overran the unionist DUP party in the Northern Ireland Assembly election for the first time, prompting unionists to warn they will boycott the new government unless post-Brexit trade rules with the EU are addressed.