UK makes unilateral decision to suspend Northern Ireland (NI) border checks

Shortly after the warnings fired by the United States against scrapping the Northern Ireland (NI) Protocol, the UK on Thursday made the unilateral decision on suspending border checks with the EU for the goods cargo that would be entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain. The protocol was agreed upon by both parties— UK and EU— to ensure the free movement of goods and trade across the Irish land border in a post-Brexit arrangement. The move would likely aggravate the EU but would not hopefully provoke an action, experts say.

On September 15, London notified Brussels of its decision to continue its border check suspension mainly on the farm produce and other goods arriving in Britain. A High Court, earlier this year, had ruled that the inspections of the goods cargos entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain must "continue pending the outcome of legal challenges" brought by the anti-Northern Ireland Protocol Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Ireland's unionist politicians have increasingly been critical of the post-Brexit arrangements, saying that it damages the place of NI in Europe.

In 2019, both UK and the EU reached a common consensus to draft domestic legislation in the UK Parliament and bring it into force in January 2021 that would allow Northern Ireland (NI) to be a part of the EU's single market. The terms, however, could not be agreed upon by European Union. UK made a decision on Thursday in response to at least seven lawsuits brought by the EU alleging a total failure on part of the UK in assuring compliances with the post-Brexit arrangement.

Tensions between the UK and the EU have been ripe due to the Northern Ireland Protocol, the special trading arrangements that came into force at the start of 2021. Since the UK pulled out of the European Union (Brexit), the EU has been implementing strict border checks on goods such as milk and eggs entering from Northern Ireland, a move slammed as damaging by the NI for its economy. EU considers the trade with NI as goods entering from "another country" or now a "non-EU country" into borders that have to undergo strict land border checks and customs inspection.

UK insists that the EU must respect the Northern Ireland peace deal—the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement reached on Good Friday, 10 April 1998 that notes there would be no change to the fundamental principles without the consent of the majority mentioned under the 'principle of consent'. The document ensures common travel area arrangements between the UK government and The Irish government that must operate in tandem with the free movement provisions of EU law. DUP MPs in Ireland have sounded unequivocal support for the Good Friday Agreement, stating that they will not seek any return of a border with physical controls on the movement of people, goods or agricultural produce within the island of Ireland.

UK to replace European Union’s flagship research funding scheme

UK is now slated to summon a full specialised committee on EU programmes latest by the upcoming week in a move that will likely heighten post-Brexit tensions between Liz Truss's government and the EU. Further exacerbating the ongoing post-Brexit squabble, the UK government outlined that it will replace the European Union’s flagship research funding scheme with its own domestic program, describing it as the "Plan B."

The pre-Brexit funding arrangement would have given British researchers access to as part of the 7-year approximately €95 billion under the Horizon Europe program that the UK is now prepared to snub. It is to be noted that the 2020 Brexit withdrawal agreement agreed upon by the United Kingdom and European Union legitimizes the UK's participation in the Horizon scheme.

Liz Truss government asserted that while her country [UK] "still hopes to participate" but the "continued delays are causing intolerable uncertainty for our research and business community."