The UK defies the EU and unilaterally alters the Irish Protocol

Northern Ireland Minister Brandon Lewis in a London file picture POOL / Reuters

The British Government of Boris Johnson has again announced this Wednesday its intention to unilaterally modify part of what is established in the Irish Protocol, the annex to the EU Withdrawal Agreement that has caused greater friction and disagreements between London and Brussels.

The Minister for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, has communicated to the House of Commons Downing Street's intention to extend until October the "grace period" granted to supermarkets and exporters that send goods from Great Britain to Ireland. North.

This British territory of Ireland remained within the internal market and the Community customs space.

It was the essential condition to carry out a Brexit agreement without the need to reimpose a border between the two Ireland that would have endangered the peace reached in the Good Friday Agreement.

As a result, the need to establish customs controls on the traffic of goods through the Irish Sea was established, although the European Commission and the British Government allowed some flexibility in adaptation until April.

The Johnson Executive has clung to the tensions that have arisen in recent months, with threatening graffiti that defined dock workers as "targets", to try to modify the terms of the Protocol.

"We are pushing for more temporary operational measures, which simply reflect the need for more time to adapt and be able to roll out the new demands, while we continue to discuss with the EU," Lewis announced in the British Parliament.

What was presented by Johnson's member of the Government as a simple practical decision was interpreted in Brussels and Dublin as a new and worrying full-blown challenge.

"It is the second time that the United Kingdom violates international law," warned the vice president of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, in an official statement.

He was referring to Johnson's attempt last September to pass a UK Internal Market Act that gave his ministers the prerogative to unilaterally lift customs controls or grant public aid to companies in Northern Ireland.

Brussels threatened legal action and the British government withdrew those clauses from the law when a trade deal was finally reached.

"It also represents a clear departure from the constructive effort that had prevailed so far," added Sefcovic, who has communicated his protest by phone to David Frost, Johnson's man responsible for all matters relating to Brexit.

Frost and Sefcovic chair the Joint Committee that supervises compliance with the Withdrawal Agreement signed in January 2020. “The European Commission will respond to this decision in accordance with the legal measures established in the agreement and in the trade agreement [signed almost a year later ], Sefcovic has warned.

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The Government of Ireland, the EU member most directly affected by everything that has to do with the protocol signed between London and Brussels, has also expressed its discomfort.

Prime Minister Micheál Martin has been "disappointed with the unilateral decision taken by the British Government", which "undermines the confidence necessary to reach any agreement".

The Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney, has also expressed his discomfort to Frost at a "very uncooperative" movement that breaks with the commitment acquired just two weeks ago by the Johnson Government to work together with the EU in the search for a solution to the problems that have arisen in Northern Ireland.