The UK Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the Northern Ireland protocol is legal, rejecting a challenge brought by pro-Brexit campaigners and the leaders of Northern Ireland’s main unionist parties.
Thus, the judges unanimously rejected the appeal filed and pointed out that «the highest rule of British Constitutional Law implies that Parliament, or more precisely Parliament and the Crown, are sovereign and that legislation passed by MPs is supreme.»
The court has thus expressed its clear message in relation to the dispute over this protocol, established so that Northern Ireland could remain within the European common market, at the cost of establishing controls on trade with the rest of the British territories. The UK government has threatened on several occasions to challenge the agreements if there are no new concessions from the EU.
Following the court’s decision, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Jeffrey Donaldson, has stressed that the case highlights why the Unionists oppose these trade agreements, according to information from the BBC television channel.
«A solution to the protocol is never going to be found in the courts, but this case has served to demonstrate why Unionists reject it,» he said, before urging the government to take the court decision into consideration and «take its own steps to replace the protocol with agreements that Unionists can support».
In this sense, he warned that «there will be no solid basis for the establishment of a Parliament and an Executive until the protocol is replaced and Northern Ireland sees its place in the British internal market restored».
However, Sinn Féin’s Brexit spokesman Declan Kearney has described the endorsement as «necessary» and stressed that the protocol is «imperfect but necessary.» «Now that its legality has been confirmed it is time to move forward at a political level and ensure that the agreement between the British government and the European Union goes forward in a pragmatic way with lasting solutions that work for everyone.»
He has been joined by the Labour Party and the Social Democrats, who speak of «clarity» on the legality of the protocol.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
