Boris Johnson’s UK government has revealed a bill and legal position that would allow it to nullify parts of the so-called Northern Ireland protocol binding part of the country to the European Union, an agreement which critics say is undermining the peace process.
The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill was published Monday evening, with a Foreign Office statement saying of the document: “The doctrine of necessity provides a clear basis in international law to justify the non-performance of international obligations under certain exceptional and limited conditions”, The Daily Telegraph reported.
It is the position of the government that the Northern Ireland protocol, which was thrashed out during the Brexit negotiation period, has actually worked very badly in reality and isn’t fit for use. The European Union, who the protocol serves well, say any unilateral change from Britain would be a breach of promise and international law, but also has resisted any suggestions of bilateral renegotiation.
In a spoken statement published shortly after the new document, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said of the decision to push on without the EU:
We’re introducing this bill today to protect peace and stability in Northern Ireland and to uphold the Belfast Good Friday Ageement.
The Bill fixes problems with the Northern Ireland Protocol, which currently treat people and businesses in Northern Ireland differently from those in the rest of the UK. It will enable us to deliver reasonable, practical solutions, like establishing a green channel to ensure goods moving and staying in the UK are freed from unnecessary costs and paperwork.
The solution avoids a hard border on the Island of Ireland, protects the integrity of the UK, and safeguards the EU single market.
Truss went on to say the UK still wanted to achieve these goals with the cooperation of the European Union but because they were not cooperating, the government would act without them.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is expected to unveil legislation allowing government ministers to amend aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol of his Brexit deal with the European Union, amid ongoing disruption of intra-UK trade.
The Northern Ireland Protocol is vehemently opposed by British Unionists in Northern Ireland — an integral part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as its name would suggest — who are refusing to form a regional government with the mostly pro-Protocol, anti-Brexit Irish nationalist parties under power-sharing rules until it is scrapped or extensively changed.
As things stand, Northern Ireland is what Prime Minister Johnson himself described as a “semi-colony” of the EU before winning the country’s highest office, with the region still being subject to EU customs and regulations to a great extent and partially detached from the wider UK by an internal border in the Irish Sea.
After long months of inaction, however, he and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss — a former arch-Remainer given responsibility for the Protocol after Lord Frost left the government — are reportedly set to unveil legislation which will allow ministers to change how it operates unilaterally, prompting howls of indignation from European Union officials and British Remainers.
Johnson has attempted to downplay concerns that this would cause a major clash with Brussels, claiming that his government is proposing only “a relatively trivial set of adjustments” and that it would be a “gross, gross overreaction” to respond by launching a trade war.
“We’ve got a problem at the moment, which is… the government of Northern Ireland can’t meet because of the effects of the protocol,” Johnson said of the supposedly pending changes.
“What it does is it creates unnecessary barriers on trade east-west,” he went on, referring to trade between Great Britain and Northern Irlenad, adding that the proposed legislation would “fix that”.
“It’s not a big deal, we can fix it in such a way as to remove those bureaucratic barriers but without putting up barriers on trade moving north-south in the island of Ireland as well,” he claimed.
Brussels appears to be taking things in a much less collegial spirit, however, with European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič warning that unilateral action by Britain is “damaging to mutual trust and a formula for uncertainty” — although the EU seemingly remains unwilling to seriously consider making significant changes to the Protocol, leaving London with little choice.
U.S. Representative Brendan Boyle, of the left-liberal Democratic Party, felt the need to pipe up on the EU’s behalf, as party colleagues up to including President Joe Biden have done frequently since before the Brexit referendum even took place, claiming that Britain’s move to alter the deal “clearly violates international law”.
U.S. Democrats such as Boyle and Biden frequently suggest that Britain declining to submit to the one-sided arrangements favoured by the EU would endanger the peace in Northern Ireland, but seldom take the growing ill-feeling among unionists who feel it undermines their place within the United Kingdom into account.
They also tend to act as though it is entirely incumbent on Britain to compromise on its sovereignty to make things work, never pressing the EU or the Republic of Ireland to compromise.
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