Liz Truss’s government will unilaterally continue to suspend border checks on goods moving from Great Britain and Northern Ireland in a move set to heighten post-Brexit tensions with the EU.
The UK government is understood to have told the European Commission of its decision to extend grace periods in a letter responding to Brussels’ legal action over the failure to comply with the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Despite politics as usual being paused while the nation mourns the Queen’s death, No 10 responded to the EU’s request for a reply to a series of infringement proceedings by the end of 15 September.
It means some food products will continue to be sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland without the physical checks required by the EU to comply with its single market rules.
Brussels is expected to hold off on any immediate retaliation or fresh legal action, as the two sides try to avoid escalation of the row over the protocol.
European Commission spokesman Daniel Ferrie said on Thursday: “I can confirm we have received a reply from the UK. We will now analyse the reply before deciding on the next steps.”
Ms Truss’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill – highly-controversial legislation designed to unilaterally override the checks on goods agreed in the Brexit deal – sparked outrage in Brussels and remains the biggest sticking point between both sides.
In June the Commission launched fresh legal action against the British government in response to the bill announced by Ms Truss. In July Brussels launched four new “infringement proceedings” against – accusing the UK of breaking parts of the Brexit deal.
However, the decision to extend grace periods in unlikely to trigger further moves while the prospect of talks to reach a compromise remains a possibility.
Earlier this week, Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic urged Ms Truss to restart negotiations and drop her highly-controversial bill in an interview with the Financial Times.
Mr Sefcovic said he wants to reduce physical customs checks across the Irish Sea to just a “couple of lorries a day”, claiming there was almost no difference between the UK demand for “no checks” and the EU’s offer of “minimum checks, done in an invisible manner”.
However, British officials have made clear they see little new in the offer from the EU Brexit chief, and Ms Truss insisted last week that any compromise has to “deliver all of the things we set out in the Northern Ireland Protocol bill”.
The UK government has said that new elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly will be called on 28 October if the impasse at Stormont remains, with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refusing to re-join power-sharing until protocol checks are ditched.
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will be in London for the Queen’s funeral on Monday. The PM will meet a “small proportion” of world leaders attending the funeral at the country mansion of Chevening House and No 10 over the weekend.
There have been unconfirmed reports that Ms Truss will speak to US president Joe Biden and Irish premier Micheal Martin amid tensions over the protocol.
But Ms Truss’s official spokesman said on Thursday that Downing Street could not yet confirm which world leaders the PM will be meeting, though he did say that the Queen’s death and “other issues” would be discussed.
