Germany, Ireland decry UK government for tearing up Brexit deal

Germany’s government made a rare public statement admonishing the British government for plans to break the Brexit deal agreed with the European Union two years ago.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney wrote a letter in the Observer on Sunday defending the Northern Ireland protocol, arguing that it upholds the Good Friday peace agreement and maintains the “high standards” of the EU’s single market.

“Unfortunately, the British government chose not to engage in good faith with these proposals,” Baerbock and Coveney wrote. “Instead of the path of partnership and dialogue, it has chosen unilateralism.”

“There is no legal or political justification for unilaterally breaking an international agreement entered into only two years ago,” the pair continued. “The tabling of legislation will not fix the challenges around the protocol. Instead, it will create a new set of uncertainties and make it more challenging to find durable solutions.”

Baerbock and Coveney urged the British government to “show the same pragmatism and readiness to compromise the EU has shown,” especially in light of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“In these difficult times, as Russia is leading a ruthless war in Ukraine, breaking with our European peace order, the EU and UK must stand together as partners with shared values and a commitment to uphold and strengthen the rules-based international order,” the two foreign ministers wrote.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants Parliament to pass his plan to override the Brexit deal by the end of 2022, but it could take as long as a year to become law if the House of Lords digs in. “We could do it very fast, Parliament willing,” Johnson said at the G7 leaders summit last week.

Legal Wrangling

The bill, which would give Britain the ability to unilaterally amend the post-Brexit settlement for Northern Ireland, risks a trade war with the EU and has soured relations with the UK’s biggest trading partner. The EU relaunched legal action against the UK last month.

Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, told Bloomberg News last week that the EU can’t accept Britain’s efforts to “unilaterally and illegally” dismantle the arrangements in the Brexit deal that keep Northern Ireland in the bloc’s single market, while creating a customs border with the rest of the UK.

In an interview with French weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said her country had unsuccessfully tried to renegotiate the Northern Ireland protocol with the EU, saying Brussels had refused to modify the text. She added that what the UK was doing was legal and in line with the doctrine in international law that allows a signatory to make changes to a treaty if it feels it puts its stability in danger.

Johnson’s deal passed to its second reading in the House of Commons last week, but exposed the fractures within the prime ministers’ party, as his predecessor Theresa May and other key Tory members voted against the plan.

“I cannot support it,” May said. “It will diminish the standing of the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world.”