A senior official in Europe has hinted that UK parliamentarians would consider killing the UK government’s Brexit bill on Northern Ireland.
Maroš Šefčovič — the European Union’s international relations tsar — has become the latest European official to suggest that UK politicians should move to kill their own government’s bill suspending parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, a bilateral agreement negotiated by the two powers which critics now say in practice is proving unfit for use.
Šefčovič’s suggestion follows similar comments made by Ireland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, who said earlier in the week that he expects some Conservative Party MPs to try and disrupt their own government’s attempts to tear up the agreement, which has largely left Northern Ireland within the EU’s single market, creating trade barriers within the UK.
Answering a question put to him on Wednesday, Šefčovič warned that a UK decision to unilaterally suspend parts of the agreement could put the country’s reputation in jeopardy, hinting that such concerns of his and the European Union’s will likely soon be echoed by representatives in the British parliament.
“Does the UK want to go in that direction, when the rule of law is something what we are discussing at every international forum these days?” the EU commissioner asked, claiming that any sort of unilateral suspension of parts of the protocol would constitute a breach in EU law.
“That’s the political question I am… throwing up,” he continued. “We are now bringing the argument… which I’m sure will be in House of Commons, House of Lords, that there is better way to solve these issues than having this legal dispute with the EU.”
The EU tsar then went on to warn that, should the UK parliament fail to kill the bill suspending parts of the agreement, the EU would be forced to act, but emphasised that “we are not there yet”.
In the meantime, Europe has engaged its lawfare division in regards to the UK’s attempt to kill parts of the protocol, announcing the beginning of two separate legal cases that accuse Britain of failing to meet obligations laid out by the protocol.
Making reference to the UK allegedly failing to adequately man border control posts in Northern Ireland, as well as supposedly failing to provide adequate data to Europe for the purpose of monitoring the movement of goods in the region, the EU’s cases seem to be centred around its own single market, the security of which it has expressed concern about.
“…the conditions, which allow Northern Ireland to access the EU’s Single Market for goods, are not for the UK to change,” Šefčovič emphasised on Wednesday. “It is simply legally — and politically — inconceivable that the UK government decides unilaterally what kind of goods can enter our Single Market.”
Meanwhile, a third legal case that was frozen in March last year alleging that the UK failed to properly implement the Agri-Food controls laid out by the protocol is also to be restarted by the bloc.
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