The government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will present legislation on Monday that will unilaterally adjust the Brexit agreements. That can be read on the site of the British House of Commons. The amendment will only increase tensions between the EU and the UK.
With this, the British government is laying down the rules from the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol in national legislation. With that translation, the British can choose not to include certain parts of the agreement in the legislation, but their own chosen solutions can.
The protocol – which Johnson himself agreed to three years ago – kept the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland open. To avoid a hard border, Northern Ireland (unlike the rest of the UK) is still part of the European internal market. As a result, old-fashioned customs controls take place to get products from Great Britain into the Northern Ireland part of the UK.
The British want to get rid of those customs controls from the start. They want to break open the protocol and make new agreements with the EU, but they are not waiting for that in Brussels. The EU only wants to talk about wrinkles within the agreement that can be ironed out.
Brussels has already warned London several times about unilaterally adjusting international agreements. In the worst case, sanctions could be imposed that could lead to a trade war. However, they are not that far yet. According to news agency Bloomberg is there a statement ready in which the EU urges the British to calm down and asks them to continue negotiations.
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