The EU is planning retaliatory measures in case the UK backtracks on its Brexit commitments this autumn.
reland’s EU commissioner Mairead McGuinness told TDs and senators yesterday that the British government’s commentary has been “shocking” and she fears they are not committed to implementing the Northern Ireland protocol to the 2019 Brexit deal.
“Plans are being made and plans will certainly be unrolled and revealed if we don’t see a cooperative implementation of the protocol,” she told the Oireachtas EU affairs committee.
“I would be concerned that, after September, we will be back into this again, where the UK is refusing to acknowledge what it signed up to in the protocol, where the UK continues to point the finger at the European Union.”
Under last December’s trade deal with the UK, the EU can suspend markets for British companies across a range of sectors if it breaches the terms of the trade accord or the 2019 exit deal – including the Northern Ireland protocol.
Relations between the two sides had been improving after several months of squabbling following the UK’s decision to unilaterally extend a grace period for supermarket deliveries, parcels and pets being moved from Britain to Northern Ireland.
Last month, the EU agreed to delay a ban on mince meat and sausage exports from Britain to Northern Ireland until September, to give supermarkets in the North time to change suppliers.
The UK’s Brexit minister David Frost said this week that increased trade between Ireland and Northern Ireland as a result of the protocol was “in many ways a problem” because it meant Northern business could not use their first choice of suppliers.
Ms McGuinness said the UK’s reaction to the EU’s extension of the grace period on mince and sausages “lacks any graciousness” and didn’t take into account the concessions made by the EU.
The bloc has also agreed to change its rules to ensure medicines, guide dogs and livestock can flow freely between Britain and Northern Ireland.
“I think what’s been quite shocking is the reaction from the UK side,” said Ms McGuinness.
“It lacked grace, frankly, that there was no acknowledgement of the work we have done here at EU level, which really begs the question as to what the United Kingdom intends to do for the future.
“I think the United Kingdom think that if they persist in non-application that this problem will go away. That’s not going to be the case because this problem gets worse.”
Meanwhile, she said there was no “undue pressure” being put on Ireland over its refusal to sign up to a global corporate tax deal that includes a minimum rate of 15pc.
“I think there’s an understanding of Ireland’s perspective but there’s also a hope and an expectation that Ireland can and will join with the rest of the European Union if a global agreement comes into play and I think we should all hope it does.”