EU launches more Brexit disputes against UK

The European Commission announced on Friday that it would open four more infringement procedures against Britain for failing to comply with a two-year Brexit deal in an area related to the situation in Northern Ireland, known as the protocol.

“Despite repeated calls by the European Parliament, 27 EU member states and the European Commission to implement the protocol, the UK government has failed to do so,” the commission’s statement said.

The Commission further writes that it refrained from using legal instruments against Great Britain “in the spirit of cooperation” to “create space” to find common solutions to the issues that have arisen. But a month ago, the British government announced it wanted to ignore the protocol entirely by unilaterally legislating duties it didn’t like.

“However, the Commission believes that Great Britain’s reluctance to engage in meaningful discussions since February last year and the ongoing consideration of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill in the UK Parliament directly contradicts this spirit.”

After this, the Commission initiated three further legal proceedings against the UK for non-compliance with the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Four proceedings against England

All four legal proceedings launched by the Commission relate to failures in the UK’s commitment to new rules for Northern Ireland. The first was the failure to apply customs rules, oversight and risk controls to goods moving from Northern Ireland to the UK. Second and third, Great Britain did not declare how it implemented the EU rules on partial excise duties and partially on alcohol duties. Finally, the British do not implement EU rules on VAT for e-commerce.

The UK has two months to respond to the Commission’s objections.