Coveney: Britain is breaking international law with protocol legislation
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The British government is breaking international law with plans for legislation to amend the Northern Ireland Protocol, forcing the EU to retaliate, Simon Coveney has said.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs rejected Boris Johnson’s summation that the bill was “not a big deal” and hinted there would be retaliatory measures from Brussels.
“I think this is a big deal, unfortunately. I wish it wasn't. I wish we weren't talking about Brexit, continually,” he said.
“We are forced because of UK action to respond to what we certainly see as a breach of international law. If you are legislating to set aside elements of an international treaty, which is international law, well, then you're breaking international law.
“But politically, this is an act of bad faith. We have been warning against this course of action. So has the EU and so have the majority of the parties in Northern Ireland.
"And so what the British government has decided to do is to go against majority opinion in Northern Ireland, to breach its words to Ireland, in terms of trying to deal with the disruption of Brexit on this island, and to breach an international treaty and international law, that it's signed and designed and ratified with the EU.”
Mr Coveney said that the British government is creating a situation where unilateral action and a breach of international law is going to force the EU to respond in a way they do not want.
“They potentially risk collapsing the protocol, because I don't believe the EU can accept the approach that the British government has now taken. And of course, all of the issues of the protocol was designed to resolve in terms of managing disruption of Brexit, now get called into question all over again.
“I hope that there will be enough people in the British government and indeed at the British Conservative Party that will ensure that the British government looks again to negotiation rather than unilateral action and breaches of international law as the way forward here."
Spoke with @MarosSefcovic We’re on the same page.
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) June 13, 2022
EU remains keen to find a negotiated solution to NIP through partnership & compromise, but we need a partner that is willing to meet us half way!
Instead U.K. Govt moves ahead with unilateral action to break an Int. Agreement.
Mr Coveney said the EU was open to negotiation.
Some 52 of the 90 Stormont MLAs signed a letter today asking the British government not to table the bill, amid a majority of support for the protocol in the latest Northern Ireland polling.
Mr Coveney said the British government's justification for the legislation is about stability in Northern Ireland and protecting the peace process.
"It's nothing of the sort and every time there has been challenges and difficulty in Northern Ireland, linked to different perspectives and linked to a polarisation of politics there, it has been the government's working together in partnership, in compromise, and with a vision that has laid foundations that have allowed parties to find common ground and agree.
“It’s a strange reason to give to move ahead with unilateral action and domestic legislation to say that; ‘We've been negotiating in good faith for 18 months, and it's got us nowhere’, when actually there has been no negotiation since the 11th of February. The negotiating teams haven't measured any kind of a serious way since then, despite the fact that the EU has been looking for engagement since February.”
Mr Coveney said there is “absolute solidarity” across the EU and within the European Commission that Ireland is not going to be collateral damage for irresponsible actions from the British government.
“We had years of negotiation that people will remember in relation to Brexit, that caused a huge amount of stress and strain for border communities. We found a solution that would ensure we would never have to face the prospect of physical border infrastructure on our island again,” he said.
He said the British government "has decided now to move in a way that they know will force a very negative reaction from the EU".
“We aren't predicting border infrastructure on the island of Ireland. Instead, the EU is going to have to respond to hold the British government to account for breaching its word and breaching international agreements that have ensured that border infrastructure wouldn't be required in the future.”
Mr Coveney does not believe this legislation will be passed anytime soon after speaking to a number of people in the Conservative Party, that there will be quite a number of people in that party who see this as undermining everything the Conservative Party stands for or has stood for in the past.
“I think that the response from the EU will be incremental,” he added.
He said that if the British government continues to take this legislation through Parliament and successfully turns it into law, the EU "will be forced to act to protect" Ireland from "the consequences of a breach of an international treaty, which has significant consequences for Ireland in terms of our own place in the EU single market".