EU launches legal action against UK over Brexit deal

Brussels contends that London has violated the Brexit deal’s controversy-ridden Northern Ireland Protocol.

The European Union has launched legal action against the United Kingdom over its alleged violation of the Brexit divorce deal’s contentious Northern Ireland Protocol. The 27-nation bloc is objecting to the UK unilaterally extending a grace period beyond April 1 that applies to trade on the island of Ireland, where the EU and the UK share a land border and where a special trade system was set up as part of the Brexit agreement. The EU has sent a letter to London demanding it reverses this decision, and has given formal notice of Brussels’s plans to kick-start an “infringement procedure”, which could lead to fines being imposed by the EU’s top court.