Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Sunday that a new British law attempting to change part of a Brexit deal in order to ease trade with Northern Ireland was ‘unilateralism of the worst kind,’ and he urged the government to resume talks.
This month, the European Commission launched two new legal proceedings against Britain after it published plans to override some post-Brexit rules in the so-called Northern Ireland protocol, which governs trade with the British province.
London has proposed eliminating some checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom and has questioned the role of the European Court of Justice in deciding on aspects of the EU-UK post-Brexit agreement.
Parliament must still pass the new legislation, which could take some time.
‘It’s not acceptable; it represents the worst kind of unilateralism,’ Martin told the BBC.
‘We fully recognise that there are legitimate concerns about the protocol’s operation, and we believe that those concerns can be resolved through serious, long-term negotiations between the European Union and the government of the United Kingdom.’
He claimed that the legislation, which London claims is required to restore a power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland, would harm the province’s economy by instituting a dual regulatory regime that would raise business costs.
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