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HEWithout much of a stir, the British government took its controversial internal market bill to the next parliamentary hurdle. In the shadow of the debate over Corona’s new requirements, the House of Commons adopted a correction to the law Tuesday night. Originally, Conservative MPs wanted to push the amendment against the government, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson struck a deal with the rebels in time and eventually took office.
The correction stipulates that Parliament must vote again before the legislative passages of the Northern Ireland Protocol enter into force. These are criticized not only in the EU and by US presidential candidate Joe Biden, but also by much of the British Parliament. The government itself had admitted that the tickets violated the exit agreement with the EU and therefore “violated international law in a very special and limited way.”
Among other things, the law assigns the qualification of goods relevant to control and customs to British ministers when goods are exchanged between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although these provisions must be jointly regulated in accordance with the treaty. Similar powers are given to the British government over the question of what state aid relevant to Northern Ireland to agree with Brussels.
Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street.
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Image: dpa
In the next week, the law will be discussed further in the lower house before it is referred to the upper house. There is considerable resistance there, even if the government does not expect the “Lords” to stop enforcing the law. It is customary in Westminster that unelected members of the House of Lords do not impede laws by which the government redeems an electoral promise.
As the “Daily Telegraph” reports, Downing Street plans to have the law debated in the House of Lords for many weeks to maintain flexibility in negotiations with the EU. If there is a breakthrough, the government could eliminate the passages in Northern Ireland that Brussels has framed before the law is due to pass in December. The transition phase agreed in the exit agreement expires on December 31, and with it British membership of the EU internal market and the customs union.
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From the point of view of the EU, the inserted parliamentary reservation does not allay its concerns. She continues to demand that the law be withdrawn or significantly modified by the middle of next week. Otherwise, she threatened legal action. According to British officials, this would result in heavy fines. Regardless of this, so far there have been no signs of willingness in Brussels or London to break up negotiations on future relations. The recent round in London was reportedly even more successful than many before.
If both parties could resolve their dispute over the interpretation of the exit agreement, only a few points of the trade agreement should be clarified. Independent experts like Charles Grant of the London Center for European Reform remain cautiously optimistic. He sees Johnson under “enormous pressure” to make a deal possible. Grant is not just a “great nervousness” among British business leaders. Many Conservatives, including ministers, are particularly concerned about the situation in Scotland. There, the need for independence could continue to grow if negotiations with Brussels fail.
Grant sees the remaining gaps in the trade talks as “bridging.” There has already been cautious progress in the conflict over fisheries, but Grant also sees a common landing zone in the dispute over fair competitive conditions, particularly over state aid. He believes that what could help is a face-to-face conversation at the highest level. Just as Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar made a compromise for Northern Ireland during a walk with Johnson last fall and thus made the exit agreement possible, the French president should now take the initiative. Emmanuel Macron is “closer” to Johnson than Angela Merkel. Furthermore, the “fact that France is one of the toughest of the 27 when it comes to fisheries and state aid” would likely allow Macron to lead the EU to compromise.
Negotiating experts voiced their expectation to MPs on Wednesday that an agreement would only be reached shortly before closing time. Ratification could then be moved into a new “implementation phase”. However, the expected frictions at the border should not be affected. The government has just warned freight forwarders in the kingdom that as of January 1 queues of up to 7,000 trucks and delays of two days can be expected at the canal border if they do not deal with the new border formalities in time. This doesn’t just apply in the event of a failed negotiation, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said.
