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- The EU has thanked President-elect Joe Biden for his support after he warned Boris Johnson not to undermine the Good Friday Agreement in pursuit of a favorable Brexit deal.
- Charles Michel, President of the European Council, “thanked the President-elect for his clear support for the Withdrawal Agreement that the EU concluded with the United Kingdom last year.”
- It came after Biden publicly warned Boris Johnson in October that a UK-US trade deal was off the table if Boris Johnson undermined the Good Friday Agreement.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
The EU has thanked President-elect Joe Biden for his support after he warned Boris Johnson about his plans to break parts of his Brexit deal with Europe.
Charles Michel, president of the European Council, spoke to Biden by phone on Monday, according to a reading provided by the EU. During the phone call, Michel “thanked the president-elect for his clear support for the Withdrawal Agreement that the EU concluded with the UK last year.”
“This agreement preserves peace and stability in Ireland and fully respects the Good Friday Agreement,” the reading added.
The statement came after Johnson announced a plan to pass a law, called the Internal Market Act, that would stop enforcing some parts of the interim Brexit deal reached between the UK and the EU last year. Parts of the internal market bill, which Johnson is still trying to pass in parliament, relate to the passage of goods between Northern Ireland and Britain.
The ministers admitted that the plan would violate international law because it would involve breaking an international treaty. Biden’s tweet in October echoed the concerns of other senior Democrats, who warned that it could involve breaking the Good Friday Agreement, despite Downing Street’s insistence that it would not.
However, Biden, who spoke to Johnson for the first time earlier this month, used his call to remind Johnson twice of his Brexit commitments in relation to Northern Ireland, according to reports.
While President Trump was a fervent supporter of the UK’s exit from the EU, Biden strongly opposed the idea. Antony Blinken, Biden’s chosen secretary of state, last year called Brexit a “total disaster.”
The president-elect in October also publicly warned Boris Johnson in October not to allow the Good Friday Agreement to become “a victim of Brexit.” He also said that a UK-US trade deal was out of the question if the UK government undermined the Good Friday Agreement.
—Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 16, 2020
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