By The Financial District
Jul 5, 20221 min
Germany and Ireland have denounced the UK government's decision to unilaterally rewrite portions of the post-Brexit agreement with the European Union (EU), according to Mike Fuller of the Associated Press (AP).
Photo Insert: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney both stated that there is "no legal or political justification" for circumventing agreed-upon trade norms in Northern Ireland.
According to the ministers, who wrote in the British daily The Observer on Sunday, Britain will be breaching a two-year-old international pact that it did not enter into in "good faith."
The Northern Ireland Protocol included in the agreement maintains an open border with EU member Ireland that is free of customs posts.
The administration of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to eliminate restrictions on items such as beef and eggs entering into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, which is meant to protect the European Union's single market.
Last Monday, London lawmakers enacted laws authorizing the revocation. Critics, opponents, and some members of Johnson's own party, as well as European observers, have stated the plan violates international law.
The government claims it is acceptable because of the "genuinely exceptional situation," but Baerbock and Coveney say that the measure will not address the protocol's "challenges." “Instead, it will create a new set of uncertainties and make it more challenging to find durable solutions,” they wrote.
The foreign ministers also said that the action jeopardizes Northern Ireland's peace under the Good Friday Agreement, which helped halt decades of sectarian conflict and has been in place since 1998.