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The EU has introduced controls to prevent the export of COVID-19 vaccines from the bloc to Northern Ireland.
Brussels activated Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol which is part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
Movement is coming amid a dispute with vaccine maker AstraZeneca on the supply of vaccine doses to the 27 members of the block.
The EU’s decision to activate Article 16 will thwart any effort to use Northern Ireland as a back door to bring vaccines to the rest of the UK.
Under the terms of the protocol, goods should be able to move freely between the EU and Northern Ireland, as the region remains in the single market for goods and continues to operate under EU customs rules.
Stormont Prime Minister Arlene Foster has called Brussels’ latest move an “incredible act of hostility.”
She said: “By activating Article 16 in this way, the European Union has once again demonstrated that it is willing to use Northern Ireland when it suits its interests but in the most despicable way: instead of providing a vaccine designed to save lives.
“At the earliest opportunity, the EU has established a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland over the coronavirus vaccine supply chain.”
The regulation means that Northern Ireland will be considered an export territory for the purposes of vaccines shipped from the EU / Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland vaccines are currently arriving from the rest of the UK, so they will not be affected.
The DUP leader added: “With the European Union using Article 16 in such an aggressive and shameful way, now is the time for our government to step up.”
Ms Foster spoke to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove about the issue on Friday night, calling for a “firm response” from the UK government.
A spokesperson for Number 10 said Gove had spoken with European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic to express the UK’s concern over the lack of notification from the EU about its actions in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The spokesperson said the UK would now carefully consider the next steps.
The European Commission said: “Exports of goods from Northern Ireland to other parts of the UK cannot be restricted by Union law unless this is strictly required by the Union’s international obligations.”
“Therefore, movements of goods covered by this regulation between the Union and Northern Ireland should be treated as exports.”
Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin has spoken with European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen to express his concerns, according to an Irish government spokesperson.
MP Louise Haigh, secretary of the Northern Ireland Labor Party, said the EU move is “deeply destabilizing and undermines the enormous efforts that are being made to make the Protocol work.”
“Unilateral actions like this do nothing to help the stability in Northern Ireland that the Protocol was designed to preserve.”
Analysis: the ‘nuclear option’
By David Blevins, Ireland Correspondent
Some have described Article 16 as the “nuclear option.”
Effectively, it allows the EU or the UK to cancel the Northern Ireland part of the Brexit deal.
The Northern Ireland Protocol was negotiated to avoid a border on the island of Ireland.
Instead, they created a border in the Irish Sea, between the UK and Northern Ireland, much to the anguish of the Unionists.
That meant that Northern Ireland was the only part of the UK that could still trade freely with the EU.
By invoking Article 16, the EU has possibly created the need for a land border on the island, after all.
Unionist politicians say the EU has now left the UK government with little choice but to invoke it as well.
Twenty-nine days after the end of the transition period, the Northern Ireland deal is hanging by a thread.
