British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s disputes and conflicts with the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) put the United Kingdom in an unfavorable light on the world stage and could make the country a pariah, writes CNN columnist Luke McGee June 18.
“Conservatives in Westminster have mixed views about how bad it all is. Some fear that the ongoing scandals and Johnson’s rhetoric are turning the UK into a pariah. Even worse, they fear that a country like the UK, a longtime member of the rules-based international order, playing so fast and freely with international law, is setting a terrible precedent at a time when democracy is under threat in many parts of the world. On the other hand, some MPs believe that Johnson’s critics are turned on by the fact that normal people do not care, ”he writes.
McGee admits that Johnson’s international spats are likely to remain on the domestic political scene. And some will like his tough stance, while others will grow a sense of embarrassment due to the fact that this man is their prime minister.
The reason for the disagreement was the publication by British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss of a draft law on amendments to the Northern Ireland Protocol. If adopted, it would allow London to unilaterally ignore some of the clauses of the Brexit deal that was agreed in 2019. This forced the EU to start legal proceedings against Britain for non-compliance with the provisions of the protocol.
According to the Deputy President of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, “there is no legal or political justification” for the “illegal” change of conditions unilaterally. According to the British authorities, everything is more than within the law.
On May 1, 2021, the EU and the UK completed all the formalities in the European process for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the community (Brexit). Then an agreement on bilateral relations between the UK and the EU came into force.
However, the dispute between the UK and the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol (NI) continues. London stubbornly insists that the protocol does not work and needs to be revised, and proposes several changes – in particular, to eliminate customs checks in the Irish Sea for British goods that are imported into Ulster. The kingdom also calls for the creation of an arbitration body that will resolve disputes over compliance with the rules of the single market.
According to Bloomberg, the EU may consider suspending the trade agreement with the UK if it takes action to amend the Brexit treaty.
On June 4, the domestic political scandal in the UK, the roots of which began to grow even at a time when London was “divorced” by the European Union, commented on the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova. In May, the secret correspondence of the former head of the country’s intelligence service MI6, Richard Dearlove, with high-ranking officials of the British government’s power bloc was published.
The letters contain information about a “conspiracy by the pro-British Brexit elite to sabotage ex-Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, and to “infiltrate the government, spy on campaign groups and replace May with Boris Johnson.”
