European Commission accuses UK of undermining Good Friday Agreement

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson greets EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen ahead of a meeting in Downing Street, London.

The European Commission has accused the UK of jeopardising the Good Friday Agreement as Brexit tensions mount.

The commission has warned Boris Johnson's government that going ahead with its controversial Internal Market Bill "would constitute an extremely serious violation of the Withdrawal Agreement and of international law".

It has said the legislation which reneges on parts of the Withdrawal Agreement has "seriously damaged trust between the EU and the UK" and it is now up to the UK government to re-establish that trust.

"The EU does not accept the argument that the aim of the draft bill is to protect the Good Friday Agreement. In fact, it is of the view that it does the opposite," commission vice-President Maroš Šefčovič said after emergency talks in London yesterday.

Mr Šefčovič said he expects the UK to respect the "letter and the spirit" of the Withdrawal Agreement.

The Internal Market Bill aims to ensure goods from Northern Ireland continue to have unfettered access to the UK market while making clear EU state aid rules – which will continue to apply in Northern Ireland – will not apply in the rest of the UK.

But the Bill itself acknowledges that certain provisions will "have effect notwithstanding inconsistency or incompatibility with international or other domestic law".

Mr Šefčovič called on the UK government to withdraw these measures from the draft Bill in the "shortest time possible" but set a final deadline of the end of the month.

"The Vice-President stated, in no uncertain terms, that the timely and full implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, including the Protocol on Ireland / Northern Ireland – which Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government agreed to, and which the UK Houses of Parliament ratified, less than a year ago – is a legal obligation," a strongly worded statement after the meeting read.

EU Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic (right) and EU Ambassador to the UK, Portuguese diplomat Joao Vale de Almeida, arrive at EU House, London. Mr Sefcovic has travelled to London to meet Michael Gove for an extraordinary meeting of the Joint Committee between the UK and EU.

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach has warned the public to prepare for a no-deal Brexit and said "trust has been eroded" between both sides.

Micheál Martin said he is "not optimistic" that a deal will be reached adding the latest moves from the UK have made negotiations very difficult.

Mr Martin said: "The stakes are higher now because of the British action.

"The publication of the bill signals an attempt by the United Kingdom Government to essentially break its commitments entered into an international agreement and that's very serious and I think the European Union leadership will be very concerned about this in terms of how the negotiations go from here on."

The Taoiseach spoke with his UK counterpart on Wednesday night and said he had raised significant concerns with him.

"I made it very clear to him, in no uncertain, terms our outright opposition to the moves that he and his government took, the unilateral nature of the British government's decision to break an international treaty," Mr Martin told RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme.