Johnson: Northern Ireland protocol change only ‘bureaucratic’

The bill planned by London breaks international law and is a particular low point in Britain’s approach to Brexit, says Ireland’s Foreign Secretary. London tries to appease.

To months of wrangling over the Northern Ireland Protocol to Brexit presents Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson presented his government’s controversial change plans as an administrative technicality. “We’re just trying to get some bureaucratic simplifications between Great Britain and Northern Ireland,” Johnson told radio station LBC. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, on the other hand, openly spoke of a “breach of law” on Monday.

It’s a series of “relatively trivial changes,” Johnson said. if the EU If a trade war started in response to British legislative plans, it would be a “gross overreaction”. Foreign Minister wanted this Monday Liz Truss table a bill for the deal negotiated in the wake of Brexit, which is likely to increase the risk of a trade war with the EU.

Truss once more called on the EU to be willing to revise the Northern Ireland protocol: “Our preference is a negotiated solution, but the EU must want to change the protocol itself,” the minister wrote on Twitter. You have with EU Vice Commission President Maros Sefcovic talked regarding the planned bill. The initiative was intended to “resolve problems with Northern Ireland and restore political stability”. The British government negotiated the Northern Ireland Protocol itself as part of the EU exit, but has since declared it impractical.

Sefcovic, on the other hand, warned once morest unilateral measures. This damages mutual trust and creates uncertainty, said the EU chief negotiator following the phone call with Truss. The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the European Parliament, David McAllister, also described unilateral measures as “unacceptable”.

De facto customs border with Ireland

The current agreement provides for special customs rules for Northern Ireland in order to keep open the border between the British province and the EU state of Ireland, which is sensitive for historical reasons. However, the agreement has created a de facto customs border in the Irish Sea, separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. This led, among other things, to delivery problems and also to great resentment in Great Britain. With the law, which is to be presented on Monday, the government wants to undermine parts of the Brexit agreements. In order to simplify trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of Great Britain, controls are to be eliminated with a “green lane”, for example.

The topic had recently become more explosive because of the general election in Northern Ireland the catholic nationalist party Sinn Fein became the strongest force for the first time. It pursues the goal of secession from Great Britain and a union with Ireland. Sinn Fein accused the British government on Sunday of breaking the law with a view to the planned changes.

After a telephone conversation with Truss, the Irish foreign minister said through his spokesman that the bill planned by London breaks international law and is a particularly low point in the British approach to Brexit. “Far from solving problems, this law will create a whole new set of uncertainties and cause damage.”

(APA/Archyde.com)

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