Northern Ireland Protocol: Commission threatens London with referral to European Court of Justice

THE European Commission may refer to Britain in D.Court of Justice of the European Union, if London does not respond to one of the legal proceedings instituted by Brussels within two months, following the publication of the British plans to abolish their regulations Northern Ireland Protocol governing trade with the British countryside and reopened another legal proceedings that had been suspended, the Vice-President of the Commission Maros Sefsovic.

There is no legal or political justification for unilaterally changing an international agreement, Sefsovic added.

«Let’s say things by name. It’s illegalSaid the Vice-President of the Commission who oversees EU relations with the United Kingdom after Brexit, during a press conference.

“What we offer is a common solution, which will offer stability that will provide legal certainty that will offer legal clarity,” he added.

These procedures may result in imposition of fines by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The Commission has stated that it still wishes to resumption of talks with Britain for resolving difficulties in shipping British products to Northern Ireland.

The UK country remains in the single market for goods, which means that imports from the rest of the United Kingdom are subject to customs declarations and, in some cases, customs controls on arrival.

The settlement brought about by the Northern Ireland Protocol was aimed at preventing the reopening of the border between the Republic of Ireland, an EU member, and Northern Ireland, a province of the United Kingdom, which would threaten the 1998 peace agreement that ended the Troubles’ thirtieth anniversary. As it is clear that the border between the European Union and the United Kingdom should be defined somewhere, the Protocol arrangements placed it in the sea separating Britain from Northern Ireland.

“The British government has announced its intention to violate international law,” said a European official. “We do not consider it legal to learn that unilaterally changing an agreement is wrong.”

Source: News Beast

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