N.Ireland first minister may quit as EU warns Britain over Brexit checks

[February 03, 2022]  By Ian Graham

BELFAST (Reuters) -Northern Ireland's first minister intends to resign later on Thursday in protest at post-Brexit trade rules, the BBC reported as the European Union warned Britain that it would breach international law if it lets Belfast halt some checks on goods.

Tensions over the Northern Ireland protocol, signed as part of Britain's exit from the EU, flared again on Wednesday when the British province's Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots ordered an immediate halt to checks on agri-food goods coming into the region from the rest of the United Kingdom.

Poots' pro-British Democratic Unionist Party has for months also threatened to pull down the regional government ahead of an election in May over its vehement opposition to the protocol, which the DUP believes drives a wedge between the region and the rest of the UK across the Irish Sea.

The protocol kept Northern Ireland in the EU's customs union for goods in order to preserve a politically sensitive open border with EU member state Ireland. In so doing, though, it created an effective border in the Irish Sea, angering pro-British, pro-Brexit unionists and prompting the British government to seek to rewrite the deal it signed up to in 2019.

The BBC reported that First Minister Paul Givan would make a resignation announcement later on Thursday, though he may not stand down until next week.
 

Asked about the report, Poots told the BBC: "I think you'll just have to wait and see what happens during today, if that happens or not." A spokesperson for the DUP could not immediately be reached for comment.

If Givan quits, it will trigger the resignation of Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill of the DUP's Irish nationalist and pro-EU rivals Sinn Fein. This would paralyse decision-making in the region where the main parties share power under a 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of sectarian violence.

Matthew O'Toole of the smaller Irish nationalist SDLP party said the DUP were behaving like "reckless infants".

Givan's resignation would not necessarily lead to early elections, which opinion polls suggest will see Sinn Fein pass the DUP to become Northern Ireland's largest party for the first time.

The DUP have lost support to other unionist groups over the protocol.

Edwin Poots arrives at the DUP ruling executive meeting to ratify Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader designate Sir Jeffrey Donaldson as party leader, in Belfast, Northern Ireland June 30, 2021. REUTERS/Jason Cairnduff/File Photo

CHECKS NOT HALTED YET

Poots also told the BBC that his officials had "I's to dot and T's to cross" before halting the checks and that this would take a matter of days. Trade bodies reported on Thursday that goods were still being inspected at Northern Irish ports.

In London, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that government wanted Northern Ireland's devolved executive to resolve the issue in the first instance, but that it was keeping the legal position under review.

Ireland's foreign minister said London has an obligation to comply with international law, a view echoed by EU Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness.

"It's an absolute breach of international law," McGuinness, Ireland's representative on the executive European Commission, told national broadcaster RTE.

A spokesman for the Commission added that Poots' decision was unhelpful, created further uncertainty for Northern Irish business and that London had a responsibility to respect the international obligations it had entered into under Brexit.

The European commissioner dealing with the protocol, Maros Sefcovic, is due to speak to British Foreign Secretary and Brexit negotiator Liz Truss later on Thursday.

Sefcovic has said the EU wants to reach agreement with Britain on getting rid of some of the checks by the end of February before campaigning begins for the Northern Irish elections.

The two sides have been seeking to resolve the impasse for months.

(Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels and Elizabeth Piper in London, writing by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]  This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.