Five years after the referendum which sealed its exit from the European Union, the United Kingdom is involved in the “sausage war”, a conflict which illustrates the difficulty of implementing the brexit and explains the bad mood of the British with the course of Divorce.
In a survey conducted by the You.gov institute on Monday (21), 38% of the population said the conduct of brexit ranged from bad to terrible. 25% are satisfied with the carriage ride, while 25% think the situation is neither good nor bad; 12% preferred not to answer.
The so-called sausage war revolves around the most politically sensitive point of the Withdrawal Agreement, the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, negotiated to avoid a hard border inside the Irish island. Without the deal, an inspection barrier would have to be created, as the Republic of Ireland belongs to the EU and Northern Ireland to the UK.
Blocking the passages inside the island would however amount to blowing on the still living embers of the conflict between the Northern Irish who advocate integration into the Irish Republic and the Unionists who oppose it, a tension accommodated by the Good Friday Peace Agreement, signed. in 1998, but still latent.
The compromise formula between the two parties was to keep Northern Ireland in the single market for goods of the European bloc. Under the agreement, signed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, an inspection would be carried out at the maritime border between Britain (which includes England, Scotland and Wales) and the Irish island . And here are the sausages.
The food, as well as raw turkey nuggets or meatballs, is considered a “chilled meat product,” and the European bloc only allows the importation of these items if they are frozen. Since leaving the EU in January this year, the UK has therefore been forced to freeze the meatballs it sells to Belgium or the nuggets it exports to Greece, and the same rule should apply to the sausages he sends to Northern Ireland.
As new rules and inspections cluttered ports and emptied supermarket shelves, the EU agreed in December to a six-month suspension of the rule’s implementation, so Northern Ireland could reorient its chain of supply.
The deadline would close on the 1st, but behold, a few weeks before the final date, Boris Johnson appears, posing for photos amid rows of strapped sausages and declaring he won’t be able to comply with the rule. In the British Parliament, he spoke, promising to do “everything in his power” to “protect the territorial and economic integrity of the country”.
“Everything You Can” began with a request for a new grace period, now until the end of September, but there is little or no will on the part of the Europeans to accept this British retreat, and negotiations are taking place. goes on in spurts as a Northern Irishman. political tensions are mounting.
It’s not the sausages, or not just the sausages, unionists have told Boris in recent weeks. They do not accept the idea of Northern Ireland being treated any differently from the rest of the UK and want the controls agreed upon during Brexit to be ignored.
The British Prime Minister threw the ball in the European court, asking for flexibility, but the Commission replied that it had already been flexible in other cases, such as medicine or used cars. If the prime minister continues to sand the deal he signed, EU negotiators have said, the conversation will continue in court.
Europeans have already claimed that the UK’s unilateral extension of the grace period violates international law, and a ruling in favor of this thesis by the European Court of Justice could impose substantial fines on the British.
The temperature has risen so much that the discussion has contaminated part of the discussions at the G7, a forum of seven among the largest industrial powers in the world, with an exchange of spades between Boris and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the intervention of the American president, Joe Biden (who has Irish and English ancestors).
Neighbors are urging Boris not to upset the delicate balance of the Good Friday deal, which ended three decades of civil war that left 3,700 people dead in Northern Ireland.
People’s patience with the back-and-forth of separation is also waning, according to You.gov polls which, since the June 23, 2016 referendum, ask whether the British think it is right or wrong to have approved. withdrawal from the EU.
In those five years the share of those who disapprove of Brexit has increased and the share of supporters has declined, and at the end of last year, just before the end of the transition period, 51% regretted leaving, versus 40% who considered it the correct decision.
With the divorce over, 49% of Britons said if the referendum took place today they would vote to stay, compared to 37% to leave; the remaining 13% did not respond or do not know. In a hypothetical vote on reintegration into the European bloc, 42% said, however, that they would vote in favor of returning to the EU, two points ahead of 40% against membership (18% did not give a preference).
As British and European politicians clashed in boardrooms and the population disapproved of the direction of Brexit, one of the European Union’s main founders, Frenchman Robert Schuman (1886-1963), said last Saturday (19) a first step towards sanctifying the Catholic Church.
According to a decree issued by the Vatican, Pope Francis recognized the “heroic virtues” of Schuman – a devout Catholic – for his role in rebuilding Europe after World War II. Originally founded by six nations, the EU incorporated the UK in 1972 and reached 28 countries in 2013. After Brexit, it now has 27 members.
Recognizing the virtues is the first of the three stages before holiness in the Catholic process. The next two, beatification and canonization, demand proof that Schuman was capable of a miracle – a word that in recent days seems to describe the task of keeping the peace both in the Brexit divorce and on the Irish island.
Brexit dates
June 23, 2016 – in a plebiscite 52% of Britons voted to leave the European Union March 29, 2017 – the two-year countdown to the UK’s official exit from the EU has started – the March 14 brexit. 2019 – just days before the two-year deadline expired, the UK government requested an extension; on March 20, EU agrees to postpone date to June 30, April 2, 2019 – UK requests a further extension, and Brexit date becomes October 31, 2019 October 19, 2019 – o UK government requests one more postponement; October 28, the date is January 31, 2020 December 12, 2019 – Boris Johnson wins UK election under motto “Let’s do Brexit both” January 31, 2020 – UK leaves the EU and a period transition begins Sep 9, 2020 – Boris Johnson proposes Home Market Act, which violates rules agreed to in the Withdrawal Pact, with respect to Northern Ireland – the most sensitive issue in divorce negotiations . .2020 – The European Commission initiates legal proceedings against the UK government. The Home Market law has been repeatedly rejected by the House of Lords, forcing the government to withdraw provisions criticized by the EU. The law comes into force on December 17 December 31, 2020 – the transition period ends and the UK leaves the EU single market and customs union in January 2021 – the need to control products arriving from Great Brittany to Northern Ireland leads to delays at Port of Dover and shortage of shops February 2021 – EU agrees to halt three-month inspections to secure supply March 2021 – UK decides to unilaterally extend the grace period until October and extends free entry to products in Northern Ireland. The EU has launched a lawsuit, which could end with the imposition of fines by the European Court of Justice on the UK on July 1, 2021 – checks on chilled meat, including sausages, should be taken back, and British products are banned from entering Ireland from the North if they do not meet EU standards
BREXIT NUMBERS
$ 905 billion
(almost BRL 4 sort, at current exchange rate) moved into UK-EU trade in 2019
13%
of EU exports are to the UK
around 50%
of UK exports to the EU
230 million
tonnes of freight pass between the EU and the UK every year
7 billion pounds
(almost 50 billion reais) is the annual cost of the new post-Brexit bureaucracy, only for the British
2 billion pounds
(nearly 14 billion reais) corresponds to the decline in UK food and drink exports in the first quarter of 2021, compared to the same period in 2020
70.8%
was the decline in food and drink exports to Ireland; for Spain the decrease was 63%, for Italy 61% and for Germany 55%
90%
it is the drop in sales of British dairy products to the EU; cheeses are down 66%
32%
fewer bottles of British whiskey cross EU borders
210 million
passengers passed between the UK and the EU each year before Brexit
938 568
students, teachers and apprentices participated in 2019 Only in 2019 (most recent data) in the Erasmus exchange program, of which the UK is no longer a part. One year, 22,000 people leaving the UK and more than 35,000 coming to its universities are expected to be affected