Brexit dispute between Ireland and Northern Ireland intensifies: Northern Ireland wants to lift all restrictions on goods from the British Isles from midnight. Nationalists see this as the beginning of secession from Great Britain.

An open dispute has arisen between Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland over the implementation of the Brexit agreement. Northern Ireland’s Agriculture Minister Edwin Putes has ordered a halt to all inspections of goods coming from the British Isles from midnight on Wednesday. The Irish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dublin was soon criticized for breaking the Brexit agreement on Britain’s exit from the European Union.

The background to the dispute is the Northern Ireland protocol in the Brexit agreement. This is to ensure that EU rules apply in Ireland without imposing border restrictions between Ireland and Northern Ireland. As a result, control of cargo movement shifted to the border between British Mainland and Northern Ireland. Northern Irish nationalists see this as a sign of secession from Britain.

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Boots, a member of the Protestant Democratic Union Party (DUP) who opposes the Northern Ireland Protocol and insists on closer ties with Great Britain, cited the legal opinion that action should not be taken without the consent of the local government of Northern Ireland. . “I have now issued a formal order ending all restrictions that did not take effect at midnight on December 31, 2020,” Boots said. The New Year 2020 was the last day of Great Britain’s EU membership; Brexit restrictions came into effect on January 1, 2021 only.

Michelle O’Neill, the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland and of the Catholic-leaning Sinn Fin party, criticized Putts’ actions as an illegal interference in national and international law. Last week, British Foreign Secretary Listrus said the DUP’s threats to deregulate were a matter for the Northern Ireland local government to address.