The European Union on Thursday demanded that the United Kingdom immediately rewrite a new Brexit bill that would change parts of a divorce agreement it signed with the E.U. last year -- threatening legal action if the outgoing member does not comply.
The U.K. formally left the bloc in January, after securing that agreement with E.U. officials, and has been in a transition period throughout 2020 as U.K. and E.U. negotiators try to thrash out a free trade agreement. The U.K. government has expressed frustration at the lack of movement, and this week Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the U.K. would end negotiations if there was no agreement by mid-October.
It has now introduced the Internal Market Bill, which would allow ministers to change rules related to checks on goods from Northern Ireland so it has "unfettered" access to Great Britain even if those changes are incompatible with international law. It has led to fears in Brussels and in Washington that the bill would override the Withdrawal Agreement's Northern Ireland Protocol, which set out an arrangement to avoid a hard land border between Ireland (an E.U. member) and Northern Ireland, and as a result the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
According to a statement by the E.U., Sefcovic “called on the UK government to withdraw these measures from the draft Bill in the shortest time possible and in any case by the end of the month” (Fox news)