Some more clarity on how the EU sees the way the Irish Protocol has to be implemented. The top line is: the Protocol binds the UK to putting in place checks and controls on GB-NI goods. If it fails to do so the EU can take the UK to the European Court of Justice (ECJ)
2/ This may sound unsettling to Brexiteers, but it turns out the UK agreed to this in the Withdrawal Agreement. Article 12(4) of the Protocol: "In particular, the Court of Justice of the European Union shall have the jurisdiction provided for in the Treaties in this respect.
3/ "The second and third paragraphs of Article 267 TFEU shall apply to and in the United Kingdom in this respect"
In other words, this is directly applicable, through the WA Act, in UK law, so a breach can be taken through the UK courts, and to the ECJ.
In other words, this is directly applicable, through the WA Act, in UK law, so a breach can be taken through the UK courts, and to the ECJ.
5/ As a reminder: the Protocol puts NI in the UK customs territory but applying EU customs law and single market for goods rules...
6/ That means NI ports and airports are effectively the external frontier of the EU single market. So goods coming from GB will be subject to tariffs and formalities, with goods posing no risk of entering the Single Market (ie, the South) enjoying a tariff exemption
7/ It's now clear the EU is concerned the UK is reneging on how this will work. A Joint Committee (EU commissioners on one side, British ministers on the other) will implement the Protocol. To the EU, the only thing the JC can do is to work out which goods get a tariff exemption
8/ What the JC can't do, officials stress, is to start negotiating on what checks and controls happen. To the EU, that has already been agreed in the Protocol and is now legally binding as it's part of an international treaty (the Withdrawal Agreement)
9/ So, the EU was taken aback by the UK's promise in the New Decade, New Approach document, which got the Assembly back up and running.
10/ The UK govt promised "we will aim to negotiate with the European Union additional flexibilities and sensible
practical measures across all aspects of the Protocol that are supported by business groups in Northern Ireland and maximise the free flow of trade"
practical measures across all aspects of the Protocol that are supported by business groups in Northern Ireland and maximise the free flow of trade"
11/ The EU has also been listening to Boris Johnson's claims there will be no checks and controls in either direction across the Irish Sea...
12/ And these comments from Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, in response to Michel Barnier's QUB speech where he said there would be checks and controls
13/ Mr Raab told Sky News that Barnier's claims were “directly in conflict, not just with the Withdrawal Agreement but the undertakings in the political declaration [setting out the two sides' future relationship].”
14/ This suggests to the EU that the UK believes that the actual need for checks and controls (and infrastructure and IT systems) is somehow dependent on the outcome of the FTA negotiations by the end of the year
15/ Not so, says the EU. The Protocol makes it clear these controls have to be in place and operable by the end of the year. If a zero-tariff FTA is in place, all the better. But there can't be any hedging on that.
