On Monday 13 June the UK government introduced legislation to find “durable solutions” to key issues in the Northern Ireland Protocol attached to the orderly Brexit agreement and to remove “unnecessary costs and paperwork for businesses”.
The bill, which was formalised in the evening, aims to “fix parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol” by addressing the practical problems the Protocol has created in Northern Ireland in four key areas: it will address “burdensome customs processes, inflexible regulation, tax and spend discrepancies and democratic governance issues”, it explained in a statement.
Earlier in the day, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss informed European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič of the matter. “It is with significant concern that we take note of today’s decision by the UK government to table legislation disapplying core elements of the Protocol. Unilateral action is damaging to mutual trust. The Commission will now assess the UK draft legislation”, the latter warned later in the evening.
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin called the “unilateral violation of the Protocol”... “very serious”. Last week in Parliament, he warned the UK authorities against such a move (see EUROPE 12967/6).
The European Commission is expected to decide this week on the launch of new infringement proceedings and to relaunch a proceeding started in 2021, also in connection with the Protocol. “We had put this legal action on hold in September 2021 in a spirit of constructive cooperation to create the space to look for joint solutions. The UK’s unilateral action goes directly against this spirit”, Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič explained.
The British government believes that talks with the EU to ease constraints on exports of goods between Britain and the province of Northern Ireland have not improved the situation. With this law, the government also wants to give guarantees to the DUP, which has refused to sit in the Northern Ireland Assembly (Stormont) since the 5 May elections until the Northern Ireland Protocol is revised.
“Following 18 months of discussions with the EU, the UK’s preference remains for a negotiated solution”, said Liz Truss on Monday morning. But she said the UK government believes that the seriousness of the situation in Northern Ireland “means they cannot afford to delay”.
The bill provides for a new ‘green channel’ system for goods coming into the UK, removing the cost and bureaucracy of applying EU customs rules and phytosanitary controls to all goods. A ‘red channel’ would apply to goods going to the EU.
At present, the Protocol provides for all goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain to be checked under EU rules, via a limited alignment, given their likelihood of also being destined for Ireland and therefore the single market. European customs duties also apply to goods destined for the single market.
For London, it is also about creating a new model of ‘dual regulation’ that allows a choice between UK and EU rules, removing barriers to trade and managing the risk of future divergence between UK and EU rules.
The third pillar of the bill is to “ensure that the government can set UK-wide policies on grants and VAT reductions, overcoming the constraints that have meant that Northern Ireland has not had the same support as other parts of the UK”. Finally, the governance of the Protocol is to be tackled, by removing the role of the EU Court of Justice in dispute resolution and empowering the UK courts to define the provisions that apply in Northern Ireland.
For London, it has become “clear” that the proposals the EU put forward last October to make trade smoother (see EUROPE 12811/14) “do not address the core problems created by the Protocol”. “They would be worse than the status quo, requiring more paperwork and checks than today”, the UK government adds. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)