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Fears are growing that the UK is preparing to walk away from Brexit talks when a top European Commission official arrives in London for an emergency meeting with Michael Gove.
The two spoke on Wednesday evening by phone, but Maroš Šefčovič requested Thursday’s urgent meeting for a “face-to-face” explanation of the government’s proposal to violate international law and “not apply” some of the Brexit agreements of Northern Ireland in case there is no trade agreement. .
Talks on Brexit resumed on Tuesday, but plummeted after word emerged that the UK was planning to back down on some of Northern Ireland’s protocols via a section inserted into the published internal market bill. on Wednesday.
Gove and Šefčovič will meet privately ahead of a full extraordinary meeting of the joint EU-UK committee, which they both chair, which was set up to implement the withdrawal agreement in all its parts, including the Northern Ireland protocol.
Brussels has accused Boris Johnson of deliberately jeopardizing the talks with unconfirmed reports circulating in Westminster that the UK is prepared to leave sooner rather than later.
Šefčovič told reporters late Wednesday that the UK was aware that disrespect for the withdrawal agreement would have consequences and said that trust in the UK was a prerequisite for the talks to continue.
“For us, this is, of course, a matter of principle,” he said.
And Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said there were now “justifiable doubts” about whether the UK wanted to conclude trade talks.
Johnson said on Sunday that if there was no agreement by October 15, both parties should “accept it and move on.”
He said the UK would then trade with the EU like Australia, which does not have a deal with the bloc, describing it as “a good result for the UK.”
Brussels is now aware of the idea that the internal market bill, which Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis admitted would violate the law, was designed to collapse the talks.
“Our colleagues in Europe, particularly those conducting the negotiations, are now wondering whether or not there is the will to reach a conclusion and come to an agreement, and that is a very serious matter,” Martin told the Financial Times in Dublin.
The EU is now studying the possibility of taking legal action under the withdrawal agreement.
Adding to the tension, sources said the European Commission was totally shocked by the domestic market bill without notice of the changes the government was seeking to make to the withdrawal agreement.
Britain’s attitude towards the issues of state aid notifications and export declarations had worried EU representatives who were part of the joint committee, according to sources in Brussels. But there was no indication of the magnitude of the changes the UK would try to make.
A senior EU diplomat said: “In four years of negotiations, this is the absolute minimum. They could at least have tried to manipulate it.
“Are UK ministers gaining powers to override not only international but also national laws? By now, we are used to seeing this in other parts of the world except Great Britain.
“We continue to strive to reach an agreement within the limited time that remains as the basis for future relationships. The importance of a governance clause that works has only grown after the last few days. “
In a letter sent to the Times on Thursday, Lord Garnier QC, the former Conservative attorney general, suggested that government law officials, including attorney general Suella Braverman, should resign.
“The admission by the secretary of Northern Ireland that the government is prepared to break the law is shocking, although sadly no longer surprising,” he wrote. “Sir Jonathan Jones… has resigned as Treasury Attorney rather than tolerating being a part of such conduct. He was right to do so. But if he has resigned, why are law enforcement officers still in office?
The newspaper also reports that the government’s top legal official, Treasury attorney Jonathan Jones, resigned this week after clashing with Braverman.
