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The EU will take “infringement proceedings” against the U.K. for its decision to unilaterally extend grace periods on post-Brexit customs checks at Northern Ireland’s ports “very soon,” according to European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič.
In an interview with the Financial Times published late Thursday, Šefčovič, who is responsible for talks with London on the implementation of the Brexit divorce deal, said: “We are currently preparing it and it would be really something coming to our table very soon … The most precise term I can give you is really very soon.” Šefčovič did not say what sort of legal action the Commission would take.
The U.K.’s policy, announced in a written statement on Wednesday, caused uproar in Dublin and also in Brussels, where officials had been expecting to resolve ongoing trade disruption in Northern Ireland later this month through a meeting of the EU-U.K. Joint Committee, which oversees the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
In reaction to the move, leaders of the European Parliament’s political groups on Thursday postponed a decision on when to vote to ratify the post-Brexit trade deal. Irish Foreign Minister told the FT the EU was “negotiating with a partner it simply can’t trust.”
But Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis argued in a Telegraph op-ed published late Thursday that the U.K.’s move was “lawful and consistent” with the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol.
A U.K. government official told POLITICO’s London Playbook that the U.K. had legal advice confirming it was not breaching international law, and its unilateral action was a mild and reasonable measure to keep trade flowing. “This is completely incomparable to their behavior at the end of January,” the official said, pointing to the row about vaccine exports to Northern Ireland. “It’s apples and oranges.”
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