The move by Northern Irish Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots to suspend import checks on goods entering the territory from Great Britain was illegal, the High Court ruled on Thursday.
In February, Poots, the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party which opposes the Northern Ireland protocol, instructed customs officials not to make the customs checks required as part of the protocol. Weeks later Poots left his post in the devolved government when the DUP withdrew its members from the administration.
Despite the instructions, checks have continued to be made in line with the terms of the protocol.
However, in a ruling which formally quashed the former minister’s instructions, Justice Colton stated that “it is difficult to draw conclusion other than the decision under challenge was an overtly political one, taken for political reasons, and as part of a political campaign directed in opposition to the protocol”.
“It may well be that for politicians, as the DUP leader said in September 2021 ‘there are no easy answers when the law requires one thing and politics demands something else’,” said Justice Colton.
“From the court’s perspective there is an easy answer and that is that the law must be obeyed.”
(Benjamin Fox | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
