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MEPs urged the European Commission to have clear procedures allowing the EU to take retaliatory measures including sanctions against the UK if it refuses to implement the terms of the Brexit agreement.
In a joint meeting of the Parliament’s committees on trade, foreign affairs and constitutional affairs on Wednesday (31 August), MEPs debated a draft regulation designed to uphold the EU’s rights under both the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement that now governs EU-UK trade.
“If there are breaches to the agreed trading conditions, with this Regulation the Commission will have the power to impose restrictions on trade, investment or other activities falling within the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement,” said Sean Kelly, the Irish EPP lawmaker who is piloting the bill through Parliament.
Kelly added that his proposal would ensure that there would be no repeat of the European Commission’s short-lived decision in February 2021 to suspend the protocol due to concerns over COVID-19 vaccine procurement, and would give MEPs oversight over the suspension and sanctions mechanisms.
Negotiations between MEPs and ministers on the regulation are likely to be completed by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Nathalie Loiseau, a former French EU minister and chair of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly, said that MEPs would not have agreed and ratified “had we had any doubts as to whether it would then be properly implemented.”
For his part, David MacAllister, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, remarked that “the UK government has once again gone down the slope of unilateral action, [so] it is clear that the European Union needs mechanisms to protect our interests”.
Relations between London and Brussels have been highly strained throughout the Brexit process, particularly over the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol, designed to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland by establishing a system of customs checks on goods travelling across the Irish Sea.
Having negotiated and agreed on the protocol, Boris Johnson’s government deemed it to be unworkable following strong criticism from Northern Ireland’s pro-British unionist community which complains that the customs checks separate Northern Ireland from the UK’s own internal market.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who tabled a bill to unilaterally override the provisions of the protocol which will continue its passage through the UK parliament when it returns from recess next week, is the hot favourite to succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister when the results of a ballot of Conservative party members are announced next Monday.
Truss’s officials have indicated that one of her first acts as Prime Minister could be to suspend the protocol.
Kelly said that the UK government’s lack of engagement on the Northern Ireland Protocol was “bitterly disappointing”.
“The unfortunate reality is that the British government has not engaged in serious negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol since February,” said Kelly.
“Trade with the UK is important for the EU
and Irish economy in particular, so it goes without saying that I would
certainly prefer if trade enforcement mechanisms were not needed.
However, with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill the UK Government has
shown its willingness to break international law, so it necessary to
ensure the EU can protect itself in the case of breaches,” Kelly
concluded.