Irresponsible and dangerous
Coveney’s view of the UK’s move on Brexit
THE British Government’s plans to override key elements of the Brexit deal has been branded ‘irresponsible,’ ‘dangerous’ and ‘eroding trust’, the Minister for Foreign Affairs has said.
Speaking at the Agricultural Science Association annual conference in Cork yesterday, Minister Simon Coveney said the UK’s plans to break international law by breaching parts of the Withdrawal Agreement was ‘extraordinary.’
‘There will not be an agreement if Britain threatens to undermine previous agreements,’ he said.
Minister Coveney said that the legislation to change the Withdrawal Agreement, that the British government is proposing ‘is not a basis for moving this negotiation forward’.
He said the Withdrawal Agreement had settled a number of difficult and divisive issues, and what the British government is proposing is moving away from commitments that they made in an international treaty they themselves put in place ‘not even a year ago’.
He said the Irish government got no warning about Downing Street’s incendiary plans.
‘We got nothing, no calls, no emails, no heads-up, nothing.’
Instead, Minister Coveney said the news was learned by reading ‘a headline in The Financial Times’.
His comments came yesterday as the 27 European Union nations presented a firmly united front to the UK against the British government’s plan to violate part of their Brexit divorce agreement, warning Downing Street that there was little chance of a new trade deal unless the UK reverses course.
The European Parliament’s lead lawmaker on Brexit said that even if a free trade agreement is struck, the EU legislature will refuse to ratify it unless Britain drops a proposal to override parts of the legally binding Withdrawal Agreement.
‘Should the UK breach the Withdrawal Agreement, the European Parliament won’t ratify a future agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom,’ said David McAllister, a German politician who heads the European Parliament’s UK-EU coordination group. He said the British bill was ‘a serious and unacceptable breach of international law’. British prime minister Boris Johnson’s plan to alter provisions in the EU divorce deal has put already bogged-down talks on a future trade deal into an even deeper rut. ‘We are remaining firm, we are remaining calm,’ Mr McAllister said after a meeting of the European Parliament’s UK committee. ‘It’s not easy to negotiate future relations under threatening circumstances.’ EU leaders have expressed anger and bafflement at the UK’s announcement that it will breach an international treaty with a bill that would diminish the EU’s oversight of trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.
Britain has so far refused to scrap the plan to breach the divorce treaty, saying its parliament is sovereign above international law.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and chairman of the eurozone finance ministers said: ‘As the United Kingdom looks to what kind of future trade relationship it wants with the European Union, a prerequisite for that is honouring agreements already in place.’
Leaders of the bloc vowed to stand together as time runs short to find a smooth economic transition before Britain leaves the EU’s economic structures on December 31. The EU had even raised the prospect that it could block exports of animal products from the UK once the current Brexit transition period comes to a close at the end of the year.
Boris Johnson, meanwhile, has appealed to Conservative MPs to support the legislation that would breach international law, amid concerns of a rebellion.
Mr Johnson hosted a conference call with backbenchers yesterday to win backing for the bill.
He was said to have told around 250 MPs that controversial clauses in the UK Internal Market Bill are ‘necessary to stop a foreign power from breaking up our country’.
MPs will begin debating the controversial bill on Monday when it returns to the Commons.
The senior Conservative backbencher Bob Neill, who chairs the Commons Justice Committee, is tabling an amendment to the Bill which he said would impose a ‘parliamentary lock’ on any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement.
Among its supporters are former prime minister Theresa May and her deputy PM Damian Green.
The UK government meanwhile announced yesterday that it had secured a trade agreement with Japan. Britain said the deal, which had been agreed in principle, meant 99% of its exports to Japan would be tariff-free.
‘No calls, no emails, no heads-up’
‘We remain firm, we remain calm’