Editorial. We thought the Brexit nightmare was over. It is not so. Just two years after its signing, on October 17, 2019, the agreement on the painfully concluded divorce between the United Kingdom and the European Union is called into question by its main promoter, Boris Johnson. The dispute raised by London concerns the implementation of the “Northern Irish Protocol”, a part of the agreement which provides for the establishment of customs controls for goods landing in Northern Ireland from Great Britain in order to protect the European internal market, to which the entire island of Ireland belongs.
Establishing such a de facto border in the Irish Sea was the only solution to avoid the reestablishment of the border between the two Ireland removed by the peace agreement of 1998. Controls at the entry of Northern Ireland, province of the United Kingdom, were also the result of a clear choice by Mr Johnson: the United Kingdom’s exit from the European customs union. Her predecessor, Theresa May, had made the opposite choice, precisely to avoid a border in the Irish Sea, an option, she affirmed, that “ no British prime minister will accept[it] never “.
To achieve a “hard Brexit”, Boris Johnson, him, accepted this compromise which ulcerates the Unionist parties of Northern Ireland. They see it as a breach of the unity of the kingdom. Based on their extremist discourse and alleging the cumbersome nature of the controls, the Prime Minister calls for a total overhaul of the text, which the Twenty-Seven refuse. Conciliatory, the European Commission proposed, Wednesday, October 13, to reduce by half customs controls and by 80% health controls on food products.
But London is upbeat by claiming the end of the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to arbitrate trade disputes concerning Northern Ireland. An unacceptable demand for the Twenty-Seven, who argue that the single European market is only viable if those who benefit from it – including the Irish province of the United Kingdom – are subject to the same rules, and therefore to arbitration of the Court of Luxembourg.
Preserving flawless unity
The tension between the European Union and the United Kingdom has never reached such a level since Brexit: London threatens to resort to Article 16 of the agreement, which allows its application to be unilaterally suspended in the event of of “ serious economic difficulties ”. A hypothesis which could lead the Twenty-Seven to take sanctions such as the imposition of customs duties on British products.
It is as if Boris Johnson needed to maintain a permanent conflict with the EU to flatter his electorate and make people forget the harmful consequences of Brexit on the economy. The statements by his former adviser Dominic Cummings that he had, from the start, intended to flout the Brexit deal he had agreed to only to win the 2019 election, probably contain a grain of truth: the good faith of the British Prime Minister is questionable.
The European Union must take this regrettable fact into account and stand firm, both to safeguard peace in Ireland and to defend the single market. Faced with British demands, the Twenty-Seven must show the same virtues as those they demonstrated during the interminable Brexit negotiations: unfailing unity and the ability to compromise which preserve good neighborly relations with the Kingdom. -United.