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An emergency meeting was held on Thursday between the European Union and Britain in the wake of accusations against the latter of breaching the Withdrawal Treaty on Brexit.
Lawyers for the EU ruled that Britain had already violated the agreement by putting forward the internal market bill. The bill has clauses which negate key aspects of the withdrawal agreement signed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2019.
The move to table the bill had been condemned byboth the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council, Charles Michel.
As Britain continues with its plan to act outside international law by violating the divorce treaty, EU negotiators remained focused on how to deal with Britain.
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.
A note circulated by the bloc's executive to the 27 EU member states said the Withdrawal Agreement gives the bloc up to four years to launch a legal procedure against Britain, if it violates EU rules during a transition period this year.
According to Britain, the proposed law clears up any vagueness in the Withdrawal Agreement with its primary focus being the 1998 Northern Irish peace deal, which ended much of the political violence which had gone on for decades.
However, the EU dismissed that assertion saying that putting forward the bill "seriously damaged trust between the EU and the UK."
"The EU does not accept the argument that the aim of the draft bill is to protect the Good Friday agreement. In fact, it is of the view that it does the opposite," the European commission said in a statement.
(CGTN)
