The European Union (EU) has taken shocking action by postponing legal action against the UK which was previously accused of violating Northern Ireland protocol.
This decision was made with the aim of creating the necessary space to consider Britain’s proposal to reform the treaty.
The legal action was initiated in March, after which the UK took unilateral action to change the implementation of the protocol.
At the time, the UK was postponing new inspections on food, packaging and pets entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain.
The Northern Ireland Protocol has been agreed by the UK and the EU to avoid hard borders in Ireland. Both sides did so by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU single goods market.
However, the action has led to the creation of new trade frontiers in the Irish Sea, causing some difficulties in moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
This led the UK to propose new negotiations to change the agreement, which was however rejected by the EU, but agreed to consider any proposal that respected the principles of the agreement.
As a result, the EU on Tuesday decided to suspend its legal action against the UK to give space to consider the proposal.
