Ireland warns U.K. against threats to Brexit protocol

Mr. Coveney said the UK’s latest threats to pull the Northern Ireland Protocol had caused consternation in Brussels, as he met leaders in the British province

Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney on May 11 said the U.K. risked a breach of international law if it scraps the trade rules it signed with the European Union for Northern Ireland.

Mr. Coveney said the U.K.’s latest threats to pull the Northern Ireland Protocol had caused consternation in Brussels, as he met leaders in the British province.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that the government “will not shy away from taking action to stabilise the situation in Northern Ireland if solutions cannot be found” to key sticking points.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said his government needed to protect the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian violence over British rule in Northern Ireland.

“That is crucial for the stability of our country of the U.K., of Northern Ireland,” he said, adding that new arrangements needed to “command across community support”.

“Plainly the Northern Ireland Protocol fails to do that and we need to sort it out.”

Mr. Coveney said that the British foreign secretary’s comments had “gone down really badly across the European Union” and rejected London’s claims that Brussels was being inflexible over its implementation.