Boris Johnson's unacceptable step

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the House of Commons in London on March 3 JESSICA TAYLOR / AFP

The tension between Brussels and London has escalated again due to the complex situation in Northern Ireland after Brexit.

For the second time in less than a year, the British Government of Boris Johnson has failed to comply with the agreement.

Johnson has unilaterally announced, bluntly and without prior notice to Brussels, a six-month extension of the grace period granted to the traffic of certain goods (such as those destined for supermarkets) arriving in Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom .

This way of proceeding is unacceptable and with good reason the European Commission has reacted by launching the preparations for an infringement procedure and the European Parliament has left in the air, without date, the ratification of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement that since 1 January provisionally regulates relations between the EU and the United Kingdom.

The temporary exemption from controls, which expires on April 1, was intended to allow time for British authorities and companies to adapt to the new post-Brexit reality, in which Northern Ireland for commercial purposes remains part of the European internal market.

The goal of that formula is to preserve the climate that was achieved with the 1998 Peace Accords that ended decades of violence between Protestants (unionists) and Catholics.

The permanence of Northern Ireland in the European market guarantees the free movement of goods between the two parts of the island without the need for controls that could have broken the coexistence.

The price that Johnson agreed to pay for having both that essential result in Ireland and the clean cut with the EU in which he insisted was to establish a border line for trade purposes at sea that separates Northern Ireland from the rest of the world. country and leaves that British province largely subject to the rules and controls of Brussels.

It's a solution Theresa May said no British prime minister would ever have accepted.

Now that the consequences of that decision are clear, the Johnson government seems incapable of assuming the result of its own commitments and chooses once again to distance itself from what has been agreed as a way to calm the growing tension in Northern Ireland (it already did the year passed with a legislative project that he later withdrew).

Brussels has offered London collaboration and been willing to jointly seek pragmatic solutions to the complications that are arising.

But it cannot accept London making unilateral bankruptcies.

The relationship between the EU and the United Kingdom must be built on respect for what has been agreed - in short, international law - and mutual trust between both parties.

Johnson's violations of the agreements undermine the UK's international credibility and dangerously undermine the possibility of forging a stable and lasting relationship with the EU.

Ireland and its citizens on both sides of the border deserve to remain in a serene living environment.

This requires a relationship of trust between London and Brussels.

Johnson's steps don't help.