Brexit dispute between Britain and EU over Northern Ireland clouds G7 leaders’ summit
- Britain and the EU are locked in an escalating diplomatic feud over Northern Ireland, the only part of the UK that borders the 27-nation bloc
- Britain’s Boris Johnson claimed the EU was not taking a ‘sensible or pragmatic’ approach to post-Brexit arrangements
Turbulence from the divorce between the UK and the European Union provided an unwanted distraction at the Group of Seven (G7) summit taking place in southwest England, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying on Saturday that post-Brexit agreements will fail if the EU continues to take a “theologically draconian” approach to the rules.
Johnson held meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and the bloc’s top officials on the sidelines of the summit he is hosting. Afterwards, the prime minister claimed the EU was not taking a “sensible or pragmatic” approach to post-Brexit arrangements, and he threatened to use an emergency clause to suspend agreed upon rules if the bloc did not compromise.
Britain and the EU are locked in an escalating diplomatic feud over Northern Ireland, the only part of the UK that borders the 27-nation bloc. The EU is angry over the British government’s delay in implementing new checks on some goods coming into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, while Britain says the checks are imposing a big burden on businesses and destabilising Northern Ireland’s hard-won peace.
The new arrangements, designed to keep an open border between Ireland and its northern neighbour, have angered Northern Ireland’s British unionists, who say they weaken ties with the rest of the UK. Tensions over the new trade rules were a contributing factor to a week of street violence in April, largely in unionist areas of Northern Ireland, that saw youths pelt police with bricks, fireworks and firebombs.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted after meeting Johnson that Northern Ireland peace was “paramount,” and the binding Brexit agreement protected it.
“We want the best possible relations with the UK. Both sides must implement what we agreed on. There is complete EU unity on this,” she said.
Johnson told Sky News at the summit site in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, that “the treaty we signed, I signed, is perfectly reasonable,” but he added: “I don’t think that the interpretation or application of the protocol (by the EU) is sensible or pragmatic.”