European Commission bans official coordination with UK on key data issues, report
The move comes as both sides attempt to find a political solution to the deadlock on Northern Ireland protocol
The European Commission has reportedly blocked all official coordination with the UK on significant online data issues until problems surrounding the Northern Ireland Protocol are addressed.
Seven officials told Politico that as part of the order, they cannot swap notes or share information with their British counterparts on matters of digital policy, such as policing online content, safeguarding individuals' online data, and limiting the dominance of tech giants.
The officials are also forbidden from discussing details of ongoing inquiries that are of the utmost importance to both sides.
The policy came into effect earlier this year after Boris Johnson said the existing post-Brexit situation in Northern Ireland was untenable.
This month, the House of Commons in the United Kingdom voted in favour of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which if signed into law, would give ministers in the British government new unilateral powers to alter or nullify controls on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
Such checks were previously agreed upon with the European Union as part of the 2019 Withdrawal Agreement and its trade protocol.
The deal kept Northern Ireland within the EU single market for goods while the rest of the UK departed in January 2021.
The agreement also included a transition period.
The main aim of the compromise was to avoid checks on goods moving between the Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which is a member state of the EU.
Since then, however, the unionist leaders in the UK have vehemently opposed the implementation of many of the planned inspections at Northern Irish ports.
Since then, however, British authorities have declined to implement many of the proposed checks at Northern Irish ports in the face of significant opposition from Unionist leaders in the UK.
In September, the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill will be discussed again and may even be amended in the House of Lords, where some peers have threatened to postpone its approval until 2023.
The European Commission has now initiated four further legal procedures over the protocol, giving the UK two months to respond to the complaints.
They concern an alleged failure to execute agreed-upon EU customs, VAT and alcohol excise laws as well as furnish the EU with information concerning exports from Northern Ireland to Great Britain.
The Commission said in a statement that its latest actions were necessary to ensure compliance with the border agreements that the UK had consented to.
The number of "infringement procedures" that the European Commission has started as a result of what it perceives to be Britain's failure to respect the trade aspects of Brexit deal now stands at seven.
The European Court of Justice may impose penalties as a consequence of these procedures, although this is unlikely to happen for at least a year.
The Commission said that it was prepared to start new legal actions to defend the EU single market against British protocol breaches.
Officials from the British government and the European Commission have had a long-standing relationship, and even after the Brexit vote in 2016, they continued to work together and coordinate on digital regulations and investigations that affected both countries.
One British official told Politico that after the UK formally left the EU in 2020, frequent updates were still shared with EU officials using encrypted messaging platforms.
Another EU official said while formal contacts between the Commission or UK government delegations were no longer permitted, people continued to have off-the-record conversations when they met one another at conferences.
"We're still talking, but it's no longer through official channels," said another EU official.