Christophe Hansen (EPP, Luxembourg), co-rapporteur on the trade and cooperation agreement with the UK, said on Thursday 4 March that, following London’s unilateral announcement to extend the grace period for some customs checks in Northern Ireland (see EUROPE 12670/6), the European Parliament has decided to postpone its decision on the date when it will vote on the agreement.
Hansen tweeted that, “if this is David Frost’s (London's representative on the joint committee) idea of showing that he’s back to his old games, he should be mindful of the fact that the European Parliament has not ratified (the agreement) yet and that the full implementation of the withdrawal agreement and its protocol is and remains a red line”.
“While it waits for the British government to clarify its intentions regarding the Irish protocol, the European Parliament has decided to postpone the decision on a date for a possible vote”, he said.
According to another source, the Conference of Presidents will return to the matter next week. The agenda for the second plenary session in March, which was the period originally planned for the vote, therefore no longer includes mention of Brexit, but is still provisional at this stage.
Dublin angry
AFP quoted Irish Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar saying on 4 March that London’s decision to amend some of the clauses in the protocol agreed with the EU on Northern Ireland without consulting Brussels is not worthy of a “respectable country”.
“For the second time in the course of a few months (editor's note: following last autumn’s vote on a bill that breached the provisions of the protocol, which was subsequently withdrawn), the British government has threatened to breach international law”, he added.
The Commission has criticised this decision and announced that it is considering what action to take. The Member States are expected to discuss this in the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the near future.
The withdrawal agreement provides the possibility of launching an infringement proceeding and referring the matter to the Court of Justice; the dispute settlement mechanism can also be activated without a response from London. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)