EU nations agree to launch legal action against UK in Northern Ireland Brexit row
EU countries have backed a proposal to launch legal action against the UK for unilaterally deciding to delay introducing post-Brexit customs checks in Northern Ireland in what will be an escalation of an ongoing row.
European Commission vice president, and the EU’s Brexit chief, Maros Sefcovic presented the plans to the 27 EU ambassadors in a meeting in Brussels yesterday, with member states unanimously giving their tick of approval.
New de-facto Brexit minister Lord David Frost last week moved to unilaterally postpone the planned imposition of new checks on food and agricultural products moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland next month until October.
Northern Ireland still follows the EU’s single market and customs unions rules, in order to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, while the rest of the UK does not.
The move was done to give businesses more time to prepare for the post-Brexit changes and to stop potential supermarket shortages, with the government calling the extension “lawful and consistent with a progressive and good-faith implementation” of the Brexit deal.
It came after the UK had already made a request to Brussels for the extension.
The decision to move without Brussels’ approval infuriated the EU, who claim the UK has now broken the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
One ambassador at yesterday’s meeting with Sefcovic told the Financial Times that the EU wanted to be “calm and firm” in its response.
The EU will reportedly now look to the European Courts of Justice to settle the dispute, even though the UK is no longer under its remit, as it believes the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement means they have jurisdiction over the row.
Brussels has also rankled at a piece Frost wrote for the Sunday Telegraph in which he said the EU was still sulking over Brexit.
Frost was just weeks ago made a cabinet minister in order to take over from Michael Gove as the UK’s Brexit chief.
It was rumoured that he was brought into the role as Boris Johnson thought Gove had been too friendly toward Brussels officials, including Sefcovic.