Northern Ireland's Post-Brexit Grace Period Has Been Extended Indefinitely By The United Kingdom
Following a stalemate in negotiations with the EU, the UK has decided to put plans for post-Brexit checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland on hold indefinitely.
As part of political squabbling dubbed "the sausage wars," grace periods aimed to smooth the transition into new trading arrangements and inspections on the island of Ireland have twice been extended.
David Frost, who is coordinating negotiations with the EU to update the contentious Northern Ireland protocol, announced a new extension on Monday evening, with no new timeframe set for the talks' conclusion.
Every three or six months, the UK wants to "create space for negotiations to place without deadlines looming," according to a government source. They also stated that they had communicated their decision to the EU in a transparent manner.
Setting a new deadline so soon after the current grace periods expire in October, according to the source, "doesn't assist develop a creative climate for talks," and so the protocol "will continue to be operated as it is currently for as long as there are talks ongoing."
While the EU has not given its formal approval to the move, it will not pursue legal action over the extension of the status quo, according to a spokesman for the European Commission, who stated that the EU is "not moving to the next stage of the infringement procedure launched in March 2021, and is not opening any new infringements for the time being." According to sources, a number of important EU leaders believe opposing Boris is pointless.
The topic came up during recent conversations between French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. "The feeling is that the developments in Afghanistan have demonstrated how crucial it is to have a good relationship with the UK, and the objective is to take the spiciness out of things," a diplomatic source said.
The grace periods were created to ease the transition to new bureaucratic requirements on the export of commodities from the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland, including items such as cold meats, which gave rise to the term "sausage wars."