EU launches four new legal actions against UK government for breaching Northern Ireland Protocol

The European Commission has launched four new legal actions against the UK government for breaching parts of the Brexit deal with Northern Ireland.

The so-called "Brexit procedures 'offence' were announced on Friday and joins others announced on June 15 this year.

Brussels says the UK is not imposing the correct customs checks on goods from Northern Ireland to Britain, which he says could help smugglers trying to breach EU export controls.

The other three breaches relate to the UK's failure to properly implement EU rules on the collection of excise duties, VAT for e-commerce and alcohol duties - which the Commission says poses a "fiscal risk" for the bloc and could cost money.

The three infringement cases previously opened and intensified in June concerned the certification of agricultural products, the so-called "sanitary and phytosanitary" checks on foodstuffs, and the failure to provide the EU with the correct statistics as agreed under the Brexit agreement.

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The European Commission first proposed legal action against the UK in March 2021, but suspended the process while it worked with the UK to find a solution.

The UK says the deal it signed affects trade between Britain and Northern Ireland and needs to be changed. While the Northern Ireland Protocol enjoys broad public support, it has antagonized some trade unionists who take issue with new trade barriers between GB and NI.

“Despite repeated calls from Parliament European Union, the 27 EU member states and the European Commission to implement the protocol, the UK government has failed to do so,” the Commission said in a statement.

“In a In a spirit of constructive cooperation, the Commission has refrained from launching certain infringement procedures for more than a year to create the space needed to find common solutions with the United Kingdom. However, the UK's reluctance to engage in serious discussions since last February and the continued passage of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill through the UK Parliament runs directly counter to this spirit.

"The purpose of these infringement procedures is to ensure compliance with the Protocol in a number of key areas. This compliance is essential if Northern Ireland is to continue to benefit from its privileged market access single European, and is necessary to protect the health, safety and security of EU citizens and the integrity of the single market."

This comes after the Treasury admitted on Thursday that the Brexit divorce bill had soared to £42.5billion, an increase of around £10billion on the figure calculated by the Office for Budget Responsibility when Britain left the bloc. The increase was largely due to an increase in pension liabilities for EU civil servants which the UK agreed to pay.

The move angered Westminster, which is currently obsessed with a Tory leadership race to replace Boris Johnson. Lord Frost, who personally brokered the Brexit deal but has since become one of its most vocal critics, said: "Those who still think that the role [of the European Court of Justice] in Northern Ireland is only a theoretical or ideological question perhaps think again."

A spokesperson for the Rishi Sunak campaign said: "The European Commission is interfering with our sovereign right to control our own e-commerce rules and set our own taxes.

< p>"As a Brexit supporter from the start, Rishi has made it clear that he will continue with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill. North until and unless the EU says it is ready to come to the table to renegotiate the contents of the protocol.

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