N Ireland protocol Violations: EU sues UK again

The European Commission launched four new legal procedures against Britain yesterday after the British parliament's lower house cleared a bill to scrap some of the rules governing post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland. The Commission, which oversees EU-UK relations, said Britain's unwillingness to engage in meaningful discussions on the protocol governing those trading arrangements and the House of Commons' passage of the Northern Ireland Protocol bill undermined a spirit of cooperation.  It brings to seven the number of "infringement procedures" the European Commission has launched over what it sees as Britain's failure to respect Northern Ireland trade aspects of the Brexit divorce deal agreed by both sides. Northern Ireland is in the EU single market for goods, meaning imports from the rest of the United Kingdom are subject to customs declarations and sometimes require checks on their arrival. The arrangement was set to avoid reinstating border controls between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland, but has inflamed pro-British unionist parties by effectively creating a border in the Irish Sea. London has proposed scrapping some checks on goods from the rest of the United Kingdom arriving in the British province.