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Die Europäische Union leitet ein Verfahren gegen Großbritannien wegen Verletzung des EU-Austrittsvertrags ein.
Dies teilte die EU-Kommission am Montag in Brüssel mit. Hintergrund ist der Streit über die Umsetzung der Brexit-Sonderregeln für die britische Provinz Nordirland.
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Brussels has launched legal action against the UK government after Prime Miniseter Boris Johnson announced he would renege on parts of the deal he signed last year.
ReplyDeleteEarlier this month the UK moved to unilaterally change parts of the deal to better suit British businesses – provoking anger on the other side of the channel, The Independent reported.
Describing the move as a "serious" violation of the agreement, the European Commission on Monday fired the starting gun on legal proceedings with two formal letters, sent on Monday.
European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, who leads on the issue for the bloc, said, “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,” he said.
The UK sparked the row when it announced it was going to unilaterally extend grace periods relaxing controls on British supermarket suppliers and businesses trading in Northern Ireland – amid concerns that the terms actually negotiated last year would cause more food shortages if implemented as agreed.
Some shops in the territory have struggled to stay stocked since January 1 when the new arrangement came in, but the situation is expected to significantly worsen when the grace periods on checks end. This was due to happen at the end of this month before the UK’s unilateral extension.
DeleteThe UK says changing the grace period is not a breach of the agreement and that it is necessary because the EU is not agreeing to an extension.
Under the agreement signed by the prime minister, the UK could be fined for the violation, or face retaliatory trade sanctions.
Asked what such sanctions could consist of, one EU official said, "That bridge will cross if and when we reach it."
The decision by the government is the second time the UK has said it will breach the agreement in its short life: last year Johnson threatened not to impose certain checks on trade required by the agreement.
DeleteThe EU official said, "We're being firm. What we see if the UK violating its international obligations for the second time in six months on the same issue."
The official said the fact there would be checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland was "crystal-clear to all sides, and it was the working assumption of the talks at the time".
"We acknowledge that the UK says it wants to implement the protocol in full, but so far this is not reflected in the facts," they said.
They added, "We believe that these unilateral measures are a violation of the duty of good faith under Article 5 of the withdrawal agreement."
"The UK must stop acting unilaterally and stop violating the rules that it has signed up to," they said, adding, "What we need to implement the protocol is mutual trust and this kind of unilateral action that we've see from the UK does not build trust."