EU sues UK over Northern Ireland deal

The European Union (EU) launched, on Wednesday (15), a new legal process against the United Kingdom due to failures in the implementation of parts of the post-Brexit resolution that was agreed with the bloc.

The British government earlier this week unveiled plans early on to change the Northern Ireland Protocol, a stretch of the agreement meant to keep the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland open, which aims to prevent a return to violence. sectarian.

The European Commission said it started the process because the UK had failed to implement the agreement “despite repeated calls” to do so.

The UK government argues that it needs to be “fixed” to avoid “heavy customs procedures, inflexible regulation, tax and spending discrepancies and democratic governance issues”.

The EU said renegotiating the protocol was “unrealistic” and that changing it unilaterally would be considered a violation of an international agreement, which could result in punishment.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Maroš Šefčovič, vice president of the European Commission, said that “there is no legal or political justification for unilaterally altering an international agreement. Opening the door to this is also a violation of international law. So let’s be precise: this is illegal.”

The deal was set up to safeguard the Good Friday Agreement, which helped to end years of sectarian violence and which requires no hard borders between the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU, and Northern Ireland, which left the European bloc along with the rest of the UK.

To avoid border restrictions, the UK has agreed to keep Northern Ireland within the EU’s regulatory framework. This solution, however, created another headache: as the rest of the UK does not fall under EU rules, goods leaving Northern Ireland for the rest of the UK would have to be checked.

Despite agreeing with this solution, the British government now says that this solution is unfair.

“[A mudança do acordo] It will end the unsustainable situation where people in Northern Ireland are treated differently than the rest of the UK, it will protect the supremacy of our courts and our territorial integrity,” said UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in a statement. announced earlier this week.

Šefčovič highlighted that, in addition to adopting the legal procedure, the European Union also presented some “additional details” about possible solutions suggested earlier.

However, he also acknowledged that disagreement could escalate further if the UK goes ahead with the changes, even sparking a trade war. “But we are not there yet and we want to resolve this issue as the two partners should, through negotiations, seeking common ground and delivering to the people of Northern Ireland,” he said.

The European bloc said in a statement it would take Britain to the European Court of Justice if the British government does not respond within two months.