The EU has expressed “serious concerns” over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s move to override part of the Brexit divorce deal, ahead of emergency talks with the UK.

European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic said he will listen to what Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has to say during an “extraordinary meeting” on Thursday, before deciding whether Britain can still be trusted.

The hastily arranged meeting of the UK-EU joint committee in London was arranged after the Government tabled legislation to alter key elements of the Withdrawal Agreement that Mr Johnson signed with Brussels.

The Government infuriated Brussels just as trade deal negotiations reached a crunch week, when ministers admitted they could break international law over the deal.

Mr Sefcovic, arriving at St Pancras, told reporters: “I came here to express the serious concerns that the European Union has over the proposed Bill. So that will be the nature of our discussions today.”

Asked if he has lost trust in the UK Government, Mr Sefcovic replied: “Let’s hear what Michael Gove will tell me this afternoon.”

Meanwhile, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and his counterpart from Downing Street, Lord Frost, will meet for the final day in the eighth round of trade deal negotiations.

Mr Johnson has argued that the UK Internal Markets Bill tabled this week is necessary to preserve unfettered trade within the UK and prevent a border between Britain and Northern Ireland.

But he has dismayed Brussels by threatening to breach international law.

Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin called the Prime Minister to express his concerns, including “the breach of an international treaty, the absence of bilateral engagement and the serious implications for Northern Ireland”.

The move has also angered some in the US, where Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said there is “absolutely no chance” of Congress passing a trade deal with the UK if it threatens the Northern Ireland peace process.

“Whatever form it takes, Brexit cannot be allowed to imperil the Good Friday Agreement, including the stability brought by the invisible and frictionless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland,” Ms Pelosi said.

“If the UK violates that international treaty and Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord, there will be absolutely no chance of a US-UK trade agreement passing the Congress.”

Ministers argue the new proposed legislation is necessary to protect the Northern Ireland peace process if London and Brussels are unable to agree a free trade deal before the current Brexit transition period runs out at the end of the year.

Tory former prime minister Sir John Major reacted angrily to Mr Johnson’s stance on international law.

“For generations, Britain’s word, solemnly given, has been accepted by friend and foe. Our signature on any treaty or agreement has been sacrosanct,” he said.

“Over the last century, as our military strength has dwindled, our word has retained its power.  If we lose our reputation for honouring the promises we make, we will have lost something beyond price that may never be regained.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer insisted Mr Johnson needed to secure a deal with the EU.

He said: “If you fail to get a deal, Prime Minister, you own that failure.”

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Britain and the European Union will hold emergency talks on Thursday over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to undercut parts of the Brexit divorce treaty, with Brussels exploring possible legal action against London.

As Britain pushes ahead with its plan to act outside international law by breaching the divorce treaty, EU negotiators are trying to gauge how to deal with London.

European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic expressed concern about the plan before a meeting with British counterpart Michael Gove in London, taking place alongside trade talks between chief negotiators Michel Barnier and David Frost.

EU diplomats and officials said the bloc could use the Withdrawal Agreement to take legal action against Britain, though there would be no resolution before the end-of-year deadline for Britain’s full exit.

One EU source said Britain would fail if it wants to try to use the planned breach of the Withdrawal Agreement to extract concessions from the bloc in trade talks.

“If they try to do that, it will fail,” the EU source said on condition of anonymity.

A note distributed by the EU executive to the 27 EU member states said the bloc could start so-called infringement procedures against Britain.

The British government says its planned law, put forward on Wednesday, merely clarifies ambiguities in the Withdrawal Agreement, but also says its main priority is the 1998 Northern Irish peace deal that ended decades of violence. It said the bill would be debated on Monday.

Europe’s leaders have been handed an ultimatum: accept the treaty breach or prepare for a messy divorce when Britain disentangles itself from the EU at the end of the year.

Britain signed the treaty and formally left the EU in January, but remains a member in all but name until the end of 2020 under a status quo agreement.

Sterling was flat at $1.2999 though overnight sterling implied volatility rose to 13%, its highest since March 26, and the FTSE 100 share index slipped.

IRELAND

Talks on a trade deal have snagged on state aid rules and fishing. Without an agreement, nearly $1 trillion in trade between the EU and Britain could be thrown into confusion at the beginning of 2021 as they also deal with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest dispute centres on rules for Northern Ireland, which shares a land border with EU member Ireland. Under the 1998 agreement, there must be no hard border in Ireland.

To ensure that, Britain’s EU divorce agreement calls for some EU rules to continue to apply in Northern Ireland. But Britain wants power to override many of them, acknowledging this would violate international law.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said any potential U.S.-UK trade deal would not pass the U.S. Congress if Britain undermined the 1998 agreement.

Former British leaders Theresa May and John Major scolded Johnson for considering an explicit, intentional breach of international law.

“If we lose our reputation for honouring the promises we make, we will have lost something beyond price that may never be regained,” Major said.

European diplomats said Britain was playing a game of Brexit “chicken”, threatening to wreck the process and challenging Brussels to change course. Some fear Johnson may view a no-deal exit as a useful distraction from the pandemic.

“I’m not optimistic at this stage,” Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin told national broadcaster RTE when asked how confident he was in a trade deal being reached. He said trust in negotiations had been undermined, making it harder to secure a free trade agreement without tariffs and quotas.

European Union leaders should impose “severe” economic sanctions on Turkey for a limited time if Ankara does not remove its military vessels and gas drilling ships from waters off Cyprus, Greece’s deputy foreign minister said on Thursday.

EU leaders will hold a special summit on September 24-25 to discuss how to resolve the crisis between Cyprus and Turkey over energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean.

EU judges should strike down a Belgian law requiring all animals to be stunned prior to their death, which has effectively outlawed slaughter according to Jewish and Muslim rites, an EU court adviser said on Thursday.

“How will the court deal with [EU] members that have for years had general bans on slaughter without stunning: Denmark, parts of Finland, Slovenia and Sweden?” asked GAIA lawyer Anthony Godfroid.

The European Union is reportedly considering taking legal action against the UK after the announced plans of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to override parts of the Withdrawal Agreement, The Telegraph reports.

The UK government is seeking to rewrite sections of the Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the legally-binding Withdrawal Agreement signed with the EU and designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, at the cost of creating a customs border in the Irish Sea.

Brussels is said to be under the impression that it may mount a successful challenge before the UK Government passes legislation that will revisit some areas of the deal reached with the bloc last year relating to Northern Ireland.

Brussels is said to have drafted a document circulated to member states that warns the UK Internal Market Bill represents a “clear breach” of the original 2019 agreement, and might “open the way to legal remedies”, according to Bloomberg.

After the end of the current transition period on 31 December 2020, which went into force after the UK exited the bloc on 31 January, the EU could also trigger the dispute settlement mechanism envisioned in the deal.

This might ultimately lay open the UK to financial sanctions.

Crisis Talks

After Boris Johnson’s government published legislation on Wednesday allowing it to re-write parts of the Brexit divorce deal penned with the European Union in 2019, the move triggered consternation in Brussels. The EU called for emergency talks on Thursday in London, seeking to salvage the negotiations aimed at securing a key trade agreement between the two sides.

Eric Mamer, chief spokesman of the EU Commission, tweeted that Brussels was seeking “clarifications” from London.

​Michael Gove’s counterpart on the UK-EU joint Brexit committee, Maros Sefcovic, intimated that the extraordinary meeting would address the bloc’s “strong concerns”.

“The Withdrawal Agreement is not open for renegotiation and we expect the letter and the spirit of the Withdrawal Agreement will be fully respected. I think on that we have to be very, very clear.”

​Concerns were earlier voiced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who warned that the UK-published Internal Market Bill “breaks international law and undermines trust”.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, arrived in London earlier for a crunch round of talks on the bloc’s relations with the UK post-Brexit.

As the outlet cites sources indicating Barnier plans to confront his counterpart Lord Frost over the current turn of events, an EU diplomat was quoted as saying:

“A quick reading of the relevant articles of the Internal Market Bill suggest the UK Government is launching a frontal assault on the Protocol and its obligations. Notwithstanding the consequences for the negotiations, this must be the absolute nadir of four years of negotiations by a country known as the cradle of democracy.”

British officials are expected to allay the concerns of EU officials, underscoring their adherence to commitments and explicit promises made in the joint committee, writes The Telegraph.

After the announcement, Boris Johnson faced further criticism on the home front from John Major, the second former prime minister after Theresa May to warn against undermining trust in the UK by revisiting the original withdrawal agreement.

Washington chimed in with its own dire warnings, as senior Democrats suggested the US-UK trade deal might be jeopardised by the United Kingdom’s failure to uphold the terms of the withdrawal agreement.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was quoted by the Irish Times as saying:

“If the UK violates that international treaty and Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord, there will be absolutely no chance of a US-UK trade agreement passing the Congress.”

UK Defends Stance

Downing Street sought to fend off criticism over the announced changes to the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement on 9 September, saying the accord had been signed “at pace”, under the assumption that its “grey areas” could be clarified later.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman insisted that protecting the Northern Ireland peace process was “exactly” why the UK was making the changes.

“We are absolutely committed to no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland,” he added.

Speaking earlier at Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson said:

“We need a legal safety net to protect our country against extreme or irrational interpretations of the protocol which could lead to a border down the Irish Sea, which I believe…would be prejudicial to the interests of the Good Friday Agreement and prejudicial to the interests of peace in our country.”