Eurozone Ministers Pledge Continued Financial Support to the Economy

The European Union asked Britain Thursday 10 September to urgently cancel a plan to breach the withdrawal agreement, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government refused and instead went ahead with a bill that could waste four years of Brexit talks.

With the increasing likelihood that Britain’s departure from the European Union would be chaotic, the European Commission said London would have committed a “very serious violation” of the withdrawal agreement last year if it went ahead with the proposed legislation.

After emergency talks between Commission Vice President Marus Sivkovic and the British minister in charge of withdrawal preparations Michael Gove, the European Union said Britain’s proposal had “seriously damaged the confidence” that London must now take steps to rebuild.

But the British government made it clear that it would go ahead with the plan, saying the bill would be discussed on Monday and published a legal opinion saying that the British Parliament is sovereign and therefore can do whatever it wants.

In the government’s legal opinion, “Parliament is the sovereign in domestic law and can pass legislation that violates UK treaty obligations.

Parliament will not act unconstitutional in enacting such legislation. “

Diplomats and officials from the European Union said the bloc could use the withdrawal agreement to take legal action against Britain, although there will be no solution before the year-end deadline for Britain’s complete exit from a transition period.

The British government says it is committed to the treaty and the proposed law that overrides parts of the withdrawal agreement only clarifies ambiguities. She says her main priority is the 1998 Northern Ireland Peace Agreement that ended decades of violence.