The EU is not guiltless and should show some flexibility. But the chances of a pragmatic solution have nosedived, and for that Boris Johnson’s government must take the blame
. This bit of the treaty keeps the province in the European Union’s single market for goods, ensuring that there are no border controls on the island of Ireland but creating a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea instead.
That the protocol needs adapting is beyond dispute. It imposes pettifogging bureaucracy on imports from the mainland into Northern Ireland; sending beef-flavoured crisps across the Irish Sea requires a vet to give the all-clear. Such absurdities do not just load costs onto firms and consumers.
The government’s decision to legislate to dismantle parts of a treaty that Boris Johnson hailed as “oven-ready” is a thoroughly misguided way of tackling this horribly messy problem. It is reputationally toxic, self-defeating and risks wider damage. Start with the damage to Britain’s reputation as a law-abiding state. The government is citing “the doctrine of necessity” to justify ripping up chunks of the protocol; this doctrine allows states to breach their international obligations in situations of “grave and imminent peril” in order to protect their essential interests. The government seems to have shopped around to get the right legal opinion, and it still bought a dud.
That is not just shameful, but also self-defeating. The government says that it wants to renegotiate the protocol, but negotiations thrive on good faith. Rather than caving in, thewill harden its position: it is already planning to restart legal action against Britain for not enforcing parts of the protocol. The bill will encounter opposition domestically, from moderate Torys and from the House of Lords, raising doubts about whether it can actually get passed.
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