A new row with the EU
The EU was preparing legal action against the UK this week, in response to London’s decision to unilaterally delay the implementation of parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol. In his first move since he became a Cabinet minister, Lord Frost declared that the UK was extending exemptions from customs checks on food and other goods sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. The grace periods, agreed in December, had been due to expire in April. The EU said the move was illegal; Frost said the six-month extension was justified, urging Brussels “to shake off” its “ill will” towards the UK for leaving the bloc.
The Protocol – designed to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, while also preserving the integrity of the EU’s single market – is causing mounting Unionist anger. Last week, Loyalist paramilitaries said they were withdrawing their support for the Good Friday Agreement in protest at the so called Irish sea border.
What the editorials said
Lord Frost has certainly “wasted no time in wielding the wrecking ball”, said The Guardian. In his first week as a Cabinet minister, he seriously undermined Britain’s relations with the EU and with the government in Dublin by breaking commitments which we signed up to of our own volition. His antics don’t just harm our standing as a reliable trading partner; they risk worsening the “increasingly confrontational mood in Northern Ireland politics after two decades of peace”. Britain should be seeking pragmatic solutions to problems created by Brexit, said the FT. Instead, we’re antagonising the EU by launching into unnecessary rows. “Defter diplomacy is called for.”
It’s Brussels that has been acting unreasonably, said the Daily Mail. It threatened to put up checks on the Irish border to stop us getting Covid vaccines; and it has been making it as difficult as possible for British companies to transport goods to Northern Ireland. Yet when, for good reason, we extend a grace period on the customs checks that we are responsible for carrying out, it “sulks”.