The European Commission has accused the UK of breaching international law concerning the movement of goods and pet travel between Great Britain and Northern Ireland after the UK moved to unilaterally change parts of the Brexit deal to better suit British businesses earlier this month.
On 3 March, the UK announced it was going to extend grace periods relaxing procedures and checks on British supermarket suppliers and businesses trading in Northern Ireland until October.
The UK has maintained changes it made to Northern Ireland’s trading arrangements are “lawful” and “well precedented” after the European Union launched legal action against it.
Under the Northern Ireland Protocol agreement to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, Northern Ireland has remained a part of the EU’s single market for goods meaning products arriving from the UK mainland have to undergo EU import procedures.
But this has created a new trade border with Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, raising concerns the terms negotiated last year would cause further food shortages if implemented, as agreed, in full at the end of March.
Some supermarkets and other shops have struggled to maintain stocks since 1 January when the arrangement began.
The UK said changing the grace period is “temporary…lawful and part of a progressive and good faith implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol”
The EU has sent two letters launching the legal action: a formal notice of breaches under EU law and a political letter to David Frost, the UK’s co-chair of the Joint Committee of UK and EU officials, calling on the British government to refrain from extending the grace period.
European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, who leads the issue for the EU, said: “The protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland is the only way to protect the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement and to preserve peace and stability while avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland and maintaining the integrity of the EU single market.
“The EU and the UK agreed the protocol together. We are also bound to implement it together.
“Unilateral decisions and international law violations by the UK defeat its very purpose and undermine trust between us.
“The UK must properly implement it if we are to achieve our objectives. That is why we are launching legal action today.
“I do hope that through the collaborative, pragmatic and constructive spirit that has prevailed in our work so far on implementing the Withdrawal Agreement, we can solve these issues in the Joint Committee without recourse to further legal means.”
The UK has a month to respond to the legal letter otherwise it faces a fine, to be decided by the European Court of Justice.
The EU has urged the UK to enter into bilateral consultations with the aim of reaching a mutually agreed solution by the end of March.