Northern Ireland stops controls
Minister breaks Brexit rule single-handedly
2/2/2022, 9:12 p.m
Northern Ireland is part of the EU single market, which is why, since Brexit, it has had to smuggle all food imported from the UK through customs. But Agriculture Minister Poots suddenly wants to end the controls. The announcement is unlikely to meet with much enthusiasm in the EU.
In the dispute over Brexit special rules for Northern Ireland, if Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots went it alone, the unitary government of the British region and negotiations with the EU would be jeopardized. Poots announced in Belfast that he had ordered the end of controls on UK food imports. Great Britain and the EU had agreed on customs controls in the course of Brexit.
Poots now said that legal advice had come to the conclusion that he could order a stop to the controls. The move is unlikely to go down well with the EU, which is currently negotiating with London over Brexit rules for Northern Ireland. The minister belongs to the main Protestant DUP party, which is campaigning for union with Great Britain. The DUP runs a fragile unity government with Catholic-Republican Sinn Fein, which in turn is seeking reunification with EU member Ireland. Sinn Fein called the order illegal.
The basis for the controls is the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol. It stipulates that Northern Ireland will continue to follow the rules of the EU internal market and customs union. This avoids a hard border with EU member Ireland, which would lead to new tensions in the former civil war area.
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However, this has created a goods border with the rest of the United Kingdom, restricting intra-British trade. The British government therefore wants to renegotiate the agreement. However, the EU insists that solutions are possible within the framework of the existing agreement.
For months, London and Brussels have been negotiating how the Northern Ireland Protocol can be implemented with as little friction as possible. Most recently, the British government had taken the edge off a bit. But British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss seems to be tightening the reins again. For example, she renewed calls for an end to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice over disputes over the protocol.