“The UK must properly implement it if we are to achieve our objectives. That is why we are launching legal action today. I do hope that through the collaborative, pragmatic and constructive spirit that has prevailed in our work so far on implementing the withdrawal agreement, we can solve these issues in the joint committee without recourse to further legal means.”
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The latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday
The UK sparked the row when it announced it was going to unilaterally extend grace periods relaxing controls on British supermarket suppliers and businesses trading in Northern Ireland – amid concerns that the terms negotiated last year would cause more food shortages if implemented as agreed.
Some shops in the territory have struggled to stay stocked since 1 January when the new arrangement came in, but the situation is expected to significantly worsen when the grace periods on checks end. This was due to happen at the end of this month before the UK’s unilateral extension.
The UK says changing the grace period is not a breach of the agreement and that it is necessary because the EU is not agreeing to an extension.
Under the agreement signed by the prime minister, the UK could be fined for the violation, or face retaliatory trade sanctions.
Asked what such sanctions could consist of, one EU official said: “That bridge we will cross if and when we reach it.”
The decision by the government is the second time the UK has said it will breach the agreement in its short life: last year Mr Johnson threatened not to impose certain checks on trade required under the arrangement.
The EU official said: “We’re being firm. What we see if the UK violating its international obligations for the second time in six months on the same issue.”
The official said the fact there would be checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland was “crystal clear to all sides, and it was the working assumption of the talks at the time”.
“We acknowledge that the UK says it wants to implement the protocol in full, but so far this is not reflected in the facts,” they said.
They added: “We believe that these unilateral measures are a violation of the duty of good faith under Article 5 of the withdrawal agreement.
“The UK must stop acting unilaterally and stop violating the rules that it has signed up to.
“What we need to implement the protocol is mutual trust and this kind of unilateral action that we’ve see from the UK does not build trust.”
The UK decided to leave the single market and customs union at the same time as it left the European Union – unlike other countries like Iceland and Norway which remain inside the European Economic Area, or Turkey which has a customs union with the bloc.
The EU applies checks on goods at its customs and regulatory border and says this is non-negotiable. The agreement struck by Boris Johnson effectively applies the checks within the United Kingdom, on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
UK news in pictures
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UK news in pictures
15 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
14 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
13 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
12 March 2021
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour Party, and Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Health Secretary, launch a poster in central London, criticising the government’s recommendation of a 1 percent NHS pay proposal, following the party’s campaign launch on Thursday for the local and mayoral elections in May
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UK news in pictures
11 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
10 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
9 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
8 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
7 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
6 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
5 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
4 March 2021
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3 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
2 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
1 March 2021
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UK news in pictures
28 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
27 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
26 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
25 February 2021
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24 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
23 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
22 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
21 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
20 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
19 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
18 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
17 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
16 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
15 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
14 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
13 February 2021
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wearing a face mask, accompanied by Sarah Rose (left), MD of the Northumbria healthcare PPE manufacturing hub in Seaton Delaval
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UK news in pictures
12 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
11 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
10 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
9 Februrary 2021
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UK news in pictures
8 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
7 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
6 February 2021
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UK news in pictures
5 February 2021
Research centre assistant Layla Hillsden with a rare copy of the 1647 Beaumont and Fletcher folio, an anthology of plays by John Fletcher and William Beaumont, from the personal library of King Charles II that has recently been acquired by Special Collections at the University of Leeds
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UK news in pictures
4 February 2021
Al Goodridge, from Newtonmore, uses an axe to create a channel in the ice for his wife Alice to swim in in Loch Insh, in the Cairngorms National Park
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UK news in pictures
3 February 2021
A mural of Captain Sir Tom Moore, by artist Robert Newbiggin, adorns a wall in Southport. The WWII veteran raised nearly £33 million for NHS charities ahead of his 100th birthday last year by walking laps of his garden in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire. He was admitted to Bedford Hospital this weekend after testing positive for Covid-19 and died yesterday with his family present
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UK news in pictures
2 February 2021
Police officers remove an environmental activist protesting against the HS2 high speed rail line, from the roof of the HS2 office in central London on February 2, 2021. – Designed to run to the former industrial powerhouse Birmingham and then Manchester and Leeds, HS2 was supposed to follow on from London’s southern Eurostar connection with Paris
AFP via Getty Images
UK news in pictures
1 February 2021
Christine Barry lifts her son Oran, two, up to kiss a statue of St Brigid as they visit St Brigid’s holy well in Co Kildare to mark St Brigid’s Day which is seen by many in Ireland as the first day of Spring
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UK news in pictures
31 January 2021
People walk a dog in Pugneys Country Park in Wakefield, West Yorkshire
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UK news in pictures
30 January 2021
Firefighters inspect the charred remains of a block at Napier Barracks after police have said a fire was started deliberately in Folkestone, England. Napier Barracks, part of the disused Somerset House Sir John Moore Army Barracks, has been used since last summer to house Asylum Seekers arriving from France to the South Coast. It has been reported that 120 of the 400 people being housed there have caught Coronavirus and a visiting doctor had described the living conditions as “inhumane”
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UK news in pictures
29 January 2021
Members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community take part in Friday prayers at the Baitus Subhan Mosque in Croydon, England. For nearly the past year, the Covid-19 pandemic, and its resulting limits on public gatherings, have forced religious communities to find new ways to observe prayers, with many events being marked at home. Mosques as well as other places of religious worship remain open, though numbers have been limited to help maintain social distancing
Getty
UK news in pictures
28 January 2021
Artwork depicting animals, created by Raymond and Leonard is displayed in the window of a house in Acton, London, to launch The Great Big Art Exhibition, the nation’s largest ever exhibition, an initiative by Firstsite
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UK news in pictures
27 January 2021
Fishing boats, some abandoned, lie in the waters of the River Wyre at Fleetwood in Lancashire
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UK news in pictures
26 January 2021
A group of friends use a sheet to sledge in the snow-covered Lickey Hills Country Park, Birmingham
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UK news in pictures
25 January 2021
A cyclist watches the sun rise from Primrose Hill
PA
UK news in pictures
24 Janaury 2021
People go sledging in the snow on Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath
Getty
Speaking as the letter was sent, an EU official said some of the problems caused would “be extremely difficult to solve if not impossible to solve because of the choices of the UK government in the context of the Brexit negotiations”.
A UK government spokesperson said the letters from the European Commission had been received and that ministers would respond “in due course”.
“We’ve been clear that the measures we have taken are temporary, operational steps intended to minimise disruption in Northern Ireland and protect the everyday lives of the people living there,” the spokesperson said.
“They are lawful and part of a progressive and good faith implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol.”
The spokesperson added: “Low key operational measures like these are well precedented and common in the early days of major international treaties. In some areas, the EU also seems to need time to implement the detail of our agreements. This is a normal process when implementing new treaties and not something that should warrant legal action.
“These aspects of the Northern Ireland protocol have only been in force for 70 days and we saw the challenges faced by supermarkets and others in the early weeks of January as a result of the joint committee agreement only being reached in December. That’s why it is right to provide a proper further period for them to plan ahead, particularly in the current circumstances of a global pandemic.”
Promising to work in a “constructive fashion” they said “all sides need to keep in mind the fact that the protocol depends on cross-community consent and confidence if it is to work and deliver our common objective of protecting the Good Friday Agreement”.
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