London, May 16, (PA Media/dpa/GNA) – A British government move to unilaterally override the Northern Ireland Protocol, could endanger the wider Brexit trade deal, an Irish minister warned on Monday.
Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney urged British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to commit to further engagement with the EU, to resolve the Irish Sea trading dispute, rather than breaking international law by acting alone.
Tensions between London and Brussels are intensifying over the prospect of Johnson using domestic legislation to nullify parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement that require checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland remains bound by EU customs rules, despite being part of the United Kingdom, under an agreement struck before the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU.
As a consequence, goods have to be inspected between Britain and Northern Ireland, causing disruptions to business and angering the region’s Pro-British unionist community.
London has lobbied hard to overhaul the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was designed to retain an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, as well as to uphold the Good Friday Agreement, the peace deal that ended decades of sectarian violence.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is expected to formally announce a plan to legislate on the protocol on Tuesday, although an actual parliamentary bill in Westminster is not expected to be published at that point.
Coveney’s comments came ahead of Johnson’s visit to Northern Ireland on Monday for emergency talks with political leaders, in a bid to break a deadlock caused by the protocol.
The power-sharing institutions in Belfast have been plunged into crisis in the wake of the recent Assembly election, with the pro-Britain Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refusing to re-enter a devolved government in protest at trading arrangements the party claims are undermining the union.
The EU has made clear that unilateral action from the UK to walk away from the protocol deal, would represent a clear breach of international law.
Coveney, who was in Brussels on Monday, warned that the entire UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement deal, the TCA – could be jeopardised if Johnson takes unilateral action on the protocol.
“This is a time for calmness, it’s a time for dialogue, it’s a time for compromise and partnership between the EU and the UK to solve these outstanding issues,” he told reporters.
“If that is the approach taken by the British government then we can make significant progress and we can make progress quickly to respond to the concerns of both the business community and the unionist community in Northern Ireland.”
“That alternative is unilateral action which means tension, rancour, stand-offs, legal challenges and of course calls into question the functioning of the TCA itself, because the TCA and the Withdrawal Agreement are interlinked, they rely on each other,” he continued.
“That is the last thing Europe needs right now when we are working so well together in the face of Russian aggression and responding to the support needed for Ukraine at this time.”
Prior to his visit to Northern Ireland, where he will hold talks with the five main parties, Johnson insisted he did not favour scrapping the protocol, but rather amending it to reduce disruption to Irish Sea trade.
Northern Ireland’s 1998 Good Friday peace agreement contains provisions to protect and develop relations both on a north/south basis on the island of Ireland and on an east/west basis between the island and Great Britain.
Johnson claims the protocol has upset this “delicate balance” of unionist and nationalist aspirations by undermining the east/west dynamic.
GNA