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The EU is involved in Johnson’s Brexit theater, for good reason
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Turkey and Brexit on the agenda
Be it a gas dispute or a refugee pact: At the special EU summit, heads of state and government are discussing how to deal with Turkey for various reasons. Brexit also entered the agenda.
At the special EU summit that begins today, the dispute with Boris Johnson is the last item on the agenda. There is a well-calculated reason for this. Because Johnson’s drama is fall 2019 déjà vu for Europeans.
AAll 365 Conservative MPs voted in favor of the “UK Internal Market Act” when it went through third reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday night. Not a single one of Boris Johnson’s colleagues in the parliamentary group opposed the bill, which legal experts say violates international law both inside and outside the Kingdom.
When the heads of state and government of the European Union meet for their special summit in Brussels this Thursday, they should make a decision on how to react to Johnson’s recent audacity. With his single market law, the British prime minister is undermining the Brexit treaty he negotiated with Europeans less than a year ago.
Will it show more flexibility in the end? British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
Source: AFP / JACK HILL
But the EU Commission, which gave the British September 30 as the deadline to repeal the law, is not moving. There is no mention of the sanctions threatened since October 1 today, either in the form of fines or suspension of agreements in the exit agreement. And certainly not from the end to the final phase of negotiations on future relationships. Only silence comes from the authorities.
This is exactly what to expect from the EU summit. The President of the Council, Charles Michel, has put the issue on the agenda for a while. “At the end of the meeting we will give a brief update on the negotiations with the UK,” said the Belgian in the invitation letter. Issues such as relations with Turkey, Belarus and China are more urgent.
But the demonstrative understatement is calculated. “We are the last to turn off the lights here” is the Stoic motto, despite all the British cross shots. Johnson’s drama has been a déjà vu for Europeans since the fall of 2019, when the Briton constantly threatened the continent with a no-deal and even tried to checkmate his own parliament by taking a break. However, just before the door closed, Johnson suddenly showed enormous flexibility.
The Northern Irish unionists paid for their commitment at that time because the controls in the Irish Sea, which Johnson Brussels allowed, meant a separation from the “mother island” from Belfast’s perspective.
Now Johnson is trying again with a frontal attack, challenging the very agreements he signed himself. A definite threat, at least that’s how Johnson’s enthusiastic Brexiters see it. Meanwhile, the latest drama triggers shrugs in Brussels. “If Johnson can end up selling a better compromise at home by claiming that he brought Europeans to their knees thanks to his threat, it is good for him,” says an EU diplomat. In the end, the three European players – Council, Commission and Parliament – will only look at the result.
If a negotiated compromise can still be reached in the course of October and a free trade agreement can be concluded promptly at the end of the transition period on December 31, controls between Great Britain and Northern Ireland are almost obsolete anyway. . Johnson can withdraw those parts of his internal market law that the EU has condemned as unacceptable. All parties have saved their faces and the economy on both sides of the English Channel has avoided the worst case scenario.
If the final act follows the previous Brexit regime. What you really shouldn’t trust Boris Johnson.
