UK Introduces New Bill to Override Bulk of Northern Ireland Protocol
The U.K. rolled out legislation June 13 that would give Britain the power to unilaterally rewrite most of the Northern Ireland Protocol, overriding the Brexit deal signed with the EU. The protocol kept Ireland in the EU single market post-Brexit and set up a customs border with mainland U.K. The new law would allow ministers to institute new rules on customs checks, tax and arbitration.
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Per a statement from the U.K.'s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the bill addresses four "key areas: burdensome customs processes, inflexible regulation, tax and spend discrepancies and democratic governance issues."
"This Bill will uphold the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and support political stability in Northern Ireland," Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. "This is a reasonable, practical solution to the problems facing Northern Ireland. It will safeguard the EU Single Market and ensure there is no hard border on the island of Ireland. We are ready to deliver this through talks with the EU. But we can only make progress through negotiations if the EU are willing to change the Protocol itself -- at the moment they aren’t. In the meantime the serious situation in Northern Ireland means we cannot afford to allow the situation to drift."
The legislation includes (1) establishing "green and red channels" to lift costs for traders within the U.K. and ensure full checks for goods going to the EU, (2) giving businesses the choice to place goods on the Northern Ireland market according to either U.K. or EU rules, (3) ensuring Northern Ireland can benefit from the same tax breaks and spending policies as the rest of the U.K. and (4) normalizing governance arrangements so that disputes are resolved independently and not through the European Court of Justice.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in response that the bill is "very regrettable," Bloomberg reported. Maros Sefcovic, the EU's top Brexit negotiator, said the bloc will consider legal proceedings against the U.K. He said the EU's reaction will be "proportionate," including infringement proceedings that were put on hold last year and new legal proceedings, Bloomberg said.