On the evening of Monday 14 September, the British House of Commons began to consider the Internal Market Bill which the European Commission has asked to be withdrawn (see EUROPE 12557/17) and which is also being criticised across the Channel, notably by former Prime Ministers. A first vote was to take place in the evening when we went to press.
Exchanges between Boris Johnson’s government and the European Union remained heated throughout the weekend. The Union considers this bill to be a violation of the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Agreement on an Orderly Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU. But Johnson refuses to withdraw it until the EU “takes its threats off the table”, he told the British press on Saturday.
The British Prime Minister also said the EU was in an “extreme” position to deprive Northern Ireland of food, while the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier raised concerns about phyto-sanitary regulations and the controls that must be made on food and live products in Northern Ireland.
Mr Barnier had for the first time expressed doubts about the British regime, referring to “uncertainties”, at the end of the last round of negotiations. A statement that has led London to fear a food ‘blockade’. There are “also many uncertainties about Great Britain’s sanitary and phyto-sanitary regime as from 1st January 2021. The European Union needs more clarity in order to make the assessment for the inclusion of the United Kingdom on the list of non-Member States”, the European negotiator said.
While Michel Barnier is due to meet his British counterpart, David Frost, in Brussels this week, the European Parliament has in any case made it known, on the evening of 11 September, that it could not ratify a bilateral free trade agreement if the withdrawal agreement and the protocol on Northern Ireland are violated.
If the UK authorities “breach - or threaten to breach - the withdrawal agreement, through the UK’s Internal Market Bill in its current form or in any other way, the European Parliament will not ratify an agreement between the EU and the UK under any circumstances”, says a statement by Parliament’s main political group leaders and the coordination group on the future relationship.
Parliament also expressed “disappointment” at these developments and called on the UK government to “uphold the Rule of law”. And it demanded “the full implementation of all provisions of the withdrawal agreement, including the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, which is essential to protect the Good Friday Agreement and peace and stability on the island of Ireland”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)