London this week will threaten to withdraw from the agreement to leave the European Union if Brussels does not show more flexibility for Northern Ireland, Reuters reported, citing one British and three European sources.
Such an initiative would not be without risk, as the Northern Ireland Protocol included in the Brexit agreement aims to preserve the Good Friday peace agreement concluded in 1998, avoiding the restoration of a physical border between the Republic of Ireland, which is a member of the EU, and the British province of Northern Ireland.
The protocol, which also aims to preserve the common European market, has led to controls on goods, including sausages, sent from Britain to Northern Ireland. This caused dissatisfaction among the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who signed the agreement, but especially among the Northern Irish unionists, who denied any difference in relations with the rest of the United Kingdom.
The British Minister for Brexit, David Frost, intends to announce an important change in the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which could have serious consequences for relations with the EU, according to one source.
Frost will inform British MPs on Wednesday and present them with a document related to Brexit.
Following Reuters information, David Frost told lawmakers that the protocol was not viable in its current form, and that if no compromise was possible with Brussels, London would consider all options, including unilateral initiatives allowed by Article 16 of the protocol.
Brussels expects Frost to deviate from the protocol until the EU agrees to a compromise, according to a European diplomat.
“We will not accept a new opening of the Irish protocol,” a senior EU official said.
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