Boris Johnson has rejected Brussels’ latest attempt to iron out problems with the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, insisting that the withdrawal agreement signed last year must be renegotiated.
According to the Guardian, a series of proposals published by the European Commission on Monday with the aim of easing implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol were said to be insufficient for the scale of the problems.
A UK government spokesperson said the two sides instead needed “comprehensive and durable solutions”. David Frost, the minister responsible for Brexit issues, has said that without a major change to the legal text of the protocol, the government will consider triggering article 16 of the EU-UK agreement to suspend parts of the deal.
Such a move would be permitted where it can be shown that “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties” are arising. But the commission would probably challenge such a decision. It would be likely to go to arbitration, raising the risk of trade sanctions down the line.
The government issued a command paper last week detailing the key changes it wishes to make to the arrangements under which Northern Ireland in effect stays in the EU’s single market and the bloc’s customs rules are enforced on goods passing across the Irish Sea.
The UK government spokesperson said it was only by engaging with Downing Street’s demands that the issues relating to a range of problems, which have caused political instability and violence in Northern Ireland in recent months, could be solved.
The UK’s outright rejection on Monday of the commission’s overtures on some of the difficult issues, including the flow of medicines from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and the movement of guide dogs and cattle, further sets the two sides on a collision course.
A series of grace periods are due to end in October and in January next year, while the commission has insisted that it will not rewrite the legal text agreed with Johnson in 2019.
KI/PR