Status: 02.02.2022 9:50 p.m
In the dispute over Brexit special rules for Northern Ireland, going it alone by Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots jeopardizes negotiations with the EU. He ordered customs controls on goods coming from the UK to be suspended.
An open dispute over the implementation of the Brexit agreement has broken out between Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland’s Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has ordered all inspections of British Isles goods to be suspended from midnight. However, it was unclear whether the officials would implement the instruction.
The Irish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dublin immediately criticized that the Brexit agreement on Britain’s exit from the European Union would be broken. The move is unlikely to go down well with the EU, which is currently negotiating with London over Brexit rules for Northern Ireland.
No border controls between Ireland and Northern Ireland
The background to the dispute is the Northern Ireland protocol in the Brexit treaty. This is to ensure that EU rules apply in Ireland without introducing border controls between Ireland and Northern Ireland. A hard border with EU member Ireland is avoided, which could lead to new tensions in the former civil war area.
As a result, controls on the movement of goods have shifted to the border between the British main island and Northern Ireland: Goods from Great Britain have to be checked for EU legal conformity in the Northern Irish ports.
Beginnings of a separation from Great Britain
Northern Irish nationalists are up in arms, seeing it as a sign of separation from Britain. Poots is a member of the Protestant Democratic Union Party (DUP), which opposes the Northern Ireland Protocol and insists on close ties with Great Britain.
He now relied on a legal opinion, according to which the measures should not have been introduced without the consent of the Northern Ireland regional government. “I have now issued a formal order to end all controls that were not in effect on December 31, 2020 at midnight today,” Poots said.
New Year’s Eve 2020 was the last day of Great Britain’s EU membership; the Brexit regulations only came into force on January 1, 2021.
Interference in national and international law?
Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill of the Catholic-leaning Sinn Fein party, criticized Poots’ move as unlawful interference in national and international law. Last week British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that threats by the DUP to halt controls were a matter for the Northern Ireland regional government to resolve.