UK Reportedly Set to Scrap Chunks of NI Protocol Unless EU Backs Down on Border Checks
05:20 GMT 10.05.2022 (Updated: 15:19 GMT 28.05.2023)
© AP Photo / Peter Morrison
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In late April, Boris Johnson vowed to take action to fix the NI Protocol, which limits the flow of UK goods into Northern Ireland while keeping the six counties within the EU's Common Market should ongoing talks with Brussels fail. The PM said the protocol lacked support of the Northern Irish community.
Liz Truss, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, is poised to scrap large parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol as early as next week, The Times reported.
Draft legislation to remove the need for all border checks on goods being sent from Britain to Northern Ireland – something that had been agreed upon in the Brexit withdrawal deal - has already been drawn up by officials working for Truss, added the report.
The legislation, which could be announced next Tuesday, is set to allow businesses in the province to jettison EU rules and regulations, while taking away the European Court of Justice's oversight role concerning issues relating to Northern Ireland.
According to cited government sources, the Bill, which presupposes throwing out large parts of the protocol instead of endowing ministers with the power to do so in future goes much further than previously expected. In its new form, the strategy would override the protocol agreed by Johnson with Brussels in October 2019, the newspaper reported.
It was emphasised that the new legislation, if passed by MPs, would also put the UK in breach of its obligations under the original withdrawal agreement, probably prompting the EU to suspend all cooperation with the UK, except on Ukraine.
Officials are said to have warned Truss that the backlash could also result in Brussels instigating legal action against Boris Johnson’s government, imposing tariffs on British exports and potentially even terminating the originally negotiated free trade deal.
However, despite the danger of a full-blown trade war with the European bloc, Truss has reportedly determined that further negotiations with the EU regarding border checks have hit an impasse. Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission's vice-president, is seen as lacking the authority to agree a deal that would be acceptable for Britain.
As justification for the new strategy, Truss is expected to cite the recent announcement made by Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, earlier rebuffed appeals by the UK and Irish governments, insisting he would block the formation of a new power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland unless “decisive action” is taken on the Brexit protocol.
On 9 May, Donaldson repeated his election campaign promise, telling the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, that the DUP would hold back from nominating ministers to the Stormont executive pending changes to the protocol.
“Until we get decisive action taken by the UK government on the protocol, we will not be nominating ministers to the executive,” he said.
Sinn Fein, the Irish republican political party, triumphed in an assembly elections on 5 May, with the DUP coming second, winning 25 seats to Sinn Fein’s 27 in the 90-seat assembly. Under power-sharing rules, the executive cannot form unless the DUP nominates a deputy first minister and other ministers.
Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Fein’s leader in Northern Ireland, accused the DUP of playing a game of brinkmanship, saying:
“This will not be tolerated where the north of Ireland becomes collateral damage in a game of chicken with the European Commission.”
Insiders claim Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, have opposed the Foreign Secretary’s intention to wield legislation to override the Northern Ireland protocol. The two politicians are believed to have argued the need for more time to negotiate.
In response to the report, allies of Sunak and Gove were cited as denying there were efforts to block Truss’ plans, emphasising that it was “ultimately a decision for the prime minister and foreign secretary”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April vowed to take action to fix the Northern Ireland Protocol if talks with the EU failed.
"Because of what is happening, I think it's fair to say the Protocol really does not command the confidence of a large, large component of the population in Northern Ireland. We have to consider that, we have to fix that - the very substantial diversions of trade. It's going on and it's getting more acute, we have to fix that and we can", Johnson said.
NI Protocol ‘Snag’
Throughout London’s negotiations with Brussels over post-Brexit trade rules, the Northern Ireland (NI) protocol has remained a particularly contentious snag.
Election posters hang from lamp posts in the mainly Loyalist Newtownards road area of East Belfast, Northern Ireland, Monday, May 2, 2022, ahead of the May 5, 2022 local elections
© AP Photo / Peter Morrison
The protocol was tailored to avoid checks on goods crossing the politically sensitive border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, which remains part of the European Union. As a compromise measure to dodge a hard border in the island of Ireland, an effective Irish Sea border had been created. From the outset, the UK government has been seeking an overhaul of the NI protocol, warning that post-Brexit checks on goods would have a disruptive effect on trade.
FILE - In this Wednesday Oct. 16, 2019 file photo motorists pass along the old Belfast to Dublin road close to the Irish border in Newry, Northern Ireland
© AP Photo / Peter Morrison
The European Union's envoy to Britain indicated on Monday that the bloc was ready to restart talks on the Northern Ireland protocol after a break necessitated by the local elections across the UK. However, it was pointed out that there would be no drastic overhaul of the arrangement.
"Let's be clear: we are not ready to renegotiate an international treaty that we signed just a couple of years ago. But also it is clear in our mind that unilateral action creates more problems than the ones it solves. So we need to find jointly agreed solutions," Joao Vale de Almeida, a former EU ambassador to the United States, said on BBC radio.
