On Friday 22 April, the European Commission declined to comment on reports in the Financial Times the previous day that the British government would introduce a new bill in early May that would allow the provisions of the protocol on Northern Ireland signed at the end of 2019 by the EU and Boris Johnson’s government not to be applied.
However, the Commission reiterated that the UK was “bound” by “legal obligations”, as was the EU, and that the latter intended to continue “working in the coming weeks to find sustainable solutions” for the British region, according to Daniel Ferrie.
“We want predictability and certainty for the people of Northern Ireland, and only a joint solution will deliver that”, he added.
According to the Financial Times, the UK government, after long threatening to activate Article 16 of the Protocol, is now reportedly preparing legislation giving ministers wide-ranging powers to revoke the post-Brexit agreement governing trade in Northern Ireland. These plans would be presented at the beginning of the next parliamentary session in early May.
Johnson’s government is said to be drawing up these plans partly in anticipation of a new constitutional crisis, should the Protestant unionist parties - all of whom rejected the Northern Ireland Protocol - refuse to rejoin the region’s power-sharing executive after the Northern Ireland Assembly elections on 5 May.
Under the proposed legislation, ministers would have the unilateral power to disable key elements of the protocol in UK law, including border controls on goods from Britain.
Both sides have been trying to find ways to facilitate trade between Britain and Northern Ireland, which is also part of the single market, since October and after new proposals for flexibility were presented by the Commission. Solutions have recently been found on the export of medicines (see EUROPE 12931/19).
No new date for a meeting between the Commission and the UK government was given on 22 April. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)