BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union has promised legal action after the British government unilaterally extended a grace period for checks on food imports into Northern Ireland, a measure that Brussels said violated the terms of the EU divorce agreement in London .
The provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement and the protocol on Ireland / Northern Ireland define the EU’s line of action. Britain signed them when it formally left the EU in January 2020. Britain says it has not violated the protocol.
PATH TO THE EUROPEAN COURT
The European Commission, which coordinates Brexit and trade policy for the 27 EU countries, initially plans to launch an “infringement procedure” against Britain.
The steps involve a letter of formal notice, requesting a response usually within two months, followed by a “reasoned opinion” requiring corrective measures, also usually within two months. The next step would be to take Britain to the European Court of Justice.
The Commission sent this letter last October, after Britain acknowledged that its Internal Market Act would violate international law by violating parts of the Withdrawal Agreement. He gave London a month to respond. Britain ended the dispute by withdrawing certain contentious clauses in December, two weeks before the two sides closed a trade agreement.
PATH TO SANCTIONS
The next route for the EU would be through the Withdrawal Agreement’s dispute settlement system.
This causes Britain and the EU to consult the issue for up to three months, at which point either party can request the intervention of a five-person arbitration panel. The panel has 12 months to comment, or six months for urgent matters.
If one side does not comply with a decision, the other side may suspend parts of any other EU-UK agreement, such as the December trade deal. This may mean that the European Union imposes tariffs on certain British imports.
PATH TO RATES AND QUOTES
The European Parliament has postponed setting a date for its vote to ratify the EU-UK trade agreement in protest against the British initiative.
The deal is applied provisionally until the end of April.
If EU legislators do not vote by then and the deadline is not extended, the trade agreement would cease to apply, leaving Britain and the European Union to negotiate under WTO terms and fees.
Bernd Lange, the German chairman of the parliament’s trade committee, told Reuters that lawmakers prefer to slow the escalation, but are “ready to use this tough weapon”.
Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Edition by John Chalmers and Hugh Lawson