EU demands UK drop a planned law that breaches Brexit deal

LONDON (AP) — Instead of closing in on a future trade deal, the European Union and Britain entered a bitter fight Thursday over a planned British law that the EU says would constitute a serious violation of the Brexit divorce agreement and destroy what little trust remains between the two sides.

The 27-nation bloc said Britain must withdraw the planned law dealing with Northern Ireland trade by the end of the month or face legal action even before the transition period following Britain’s EU departure ends on December 31.

“By putting forward this bill, the UK has seriously damaged trust between the EU and the UK. It is now up to the UK government to reestablish that trust,” European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said after talks with Britain’s chief Brexit minister, Michael Gove, at a hastily arranged meeting in London.

Simultaneous talks on a future trade deal also remained in a rut, with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier accusing Britain of wanting to keep the advantages of membership it freely relinquished on January 31 when it officially left the bloc.

“The UK is refusing to include indispensable guarantees of fair competition in our future agreement, while requesting free access to our market,” Barnier said.

Less than a year ago the two sides signed and ratified a withdrawal agreement that Britain now acknowledges it will violate with its Internal Market Bill, which would diminish the EU’s oversight of trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.

That’s a sensitive issue because Northern Ireland has the UK’s only land border with the EU.

Sefcovic said the bill, if adopted, “would constitute an extremely serious violation of the Withdrawal Agreement and of international law.”

He said that if Britain didn’t change course by the end of September, the EU would take legal action.

“The Withdrawal Agreement contains a number of mechanisms and legal remedies to address violations of the legal obligations contained in the text – which the European Union will not be shy in using,” Sefcovic said.

The UK has acknowledged that the proposed legislation breaks international law “in a very specific and limited way.”

But it argues that it is acting legally under British law because according to the “fundamental principle of Parliamentary sovereignty … treaty obligations only become binding to the extent that they are enshrined in domestic legislation.”

Britain and the EU have jointly promised in the Brexit divorce agreement to ensure there are no customs posts or other obstacles on the Northern Ireland-Ireland border.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us @onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.