Brussels reactivates the judicial process against the United Kingdom for violating the protocol agreed for Northern Ireland

BRUSSELS, June 13 (EUROPE PRESS) -

The European Commission will reactivate the judicial process against the United Kingdom for violating the provisions of the protocol for Northern Ireland negotiated between the parties to mitigate the impact of Brexit in Ulster, after the Government of Boris Johnson formally presented a law on Monday that in the practice unilaterally suspends the pact.

"The Commission will consider continuing the infringement procedure opened in March 2021 against the UK Government. We are suspending that action in a constructive spirit of cooperation to make room for joint solutions, but the UK's unilateral action goes directly against this", said from Brussels the vice president of the Community Executive responsible for relations with the United Kingdom, Maros Sefcovic.

Brussels initiated this first sanctioning file against the United Kingdom when verifying the first British breaches of the protocol, but months later it chose to paralyze the process to favor a negotiated solution, without there having been tangible results since then.

Now, the community services will reactivate this file and will examine the possibility of initiating other infringement procedures that specifically address the "risks for the Single Market created by the violation of the protocol", Sefcovic has advanced, in a brief appearance and without questions in which he has also made it clear that it is "unrealistic" to think that the EU will agree to "renegotiate" the agreement.

Sefcovic had already spoken early this Monday with the British Foreign Minister, Liz Truss, in a telephone exchange during which she defended the need for this new rule to resolve "problems" in the application of the protocol, while assuring that it will not affect the Single Market nor does it require the reintroduction of a hard border between the two irelands.

The community vice president, for his part, replied to Truss that unilateral measures only serve to "damage trust" between the parties and create greater uncertainty.