Sefcovic: UK's Northern Ireland Protocol Bill 'Is Illegal'

Speaking at presser in Brussels, European Commission Exec VP Maros Sefcovic says of the UK's Northern Ireland Protocol bill “Let’s call a spade a spade. This is illegal.”

• Sefcovic: "Let there be no doubt, there is no legal nor political justification whatsoever for unilaterally changing an international agreement. Opening the door to unilaterally changing an international agreement is a breach of international law."
• Sefcovic: "The Commission has decided to take legal action against the United Kingdom for not complying with significant parts of the protocol. We have been withholding this action over past year because we wanted to create constructive environment. But UK gov't has left us with no choice"
• Sefcovic: "If UK doesn't reply within two months, we may take them to the Court of Justice...Second, we are launching 2 new infringements against UK - for failing to carry out necessary controls at border control posts...and for failing to provide EU with essential trade statistics data"
• Sefcovic: ""Despite today's legal action, our door remains open to dialogue. We want to discuss these solutions with the UK government....Given that the UK hasn't sat down at the table with us since February, I think it's high time to find some political will to find joint solutions."

The launching of infringement proceedings was largely expected, and does not go as far as suspending the FTA between the UK and EU, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which would have been viewed as the 'nuclear option'. Infringement proceedings take significant time to work through and can provide time for talks between UK and EU on NI Protocol issues.

• Link to livestream of presser: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/