Britain plunged Brexit trade talks into crisis on Wednesday by publishing a bill that explicitly acknowledges the government could break international law by ignoring some parts of the divorce treaty it signed with the European Union.
Brushing aside warnings from Brussels that breaching the treaty would prevent any trade deal being struck, London said in the proposed legislation that it would ignore parts of the Withdrawal Agreement, which was only signed in January.
The Internal Markets Bill says that certain provisions are “to have effect notwithstanding inconsistency or incompatibility with international or other domestic law”.
The government has said international law would be broken “in a very specific and limited way”, but the EU has made its anger plain.
“Very concerned about announcements from the British government on its intentions to breach the Withdrawal Agreement,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the EU executive, said on Twitter.
“This would break international law and undermines trust. Pacta sunt servanda = the foundation of prosperous future relations,” she said. The Latin phrase, meaning “agreements must be kept”, is a basic principle of international law.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament the bill was “a legal safety net to protect our country against extreme or irrational interpretations” of the Northern Ireland protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement that could threaten peace in the British province.