Ripping up the Withdrawal Agreement is a big mistake

Like most things Brexit related, it depends on who you believe. The EU is concerned over the announcement that the government will be introducing legislation that could override portions of the Withdrawal Agreement, in particular the Northern Ireland Protocol. The UK government insists that the changes they wish to introduce are ‘limited and reasonable’ and will not violate the treaty. I truly hope it is our government which is right here. If Boris really is planning to violate the Withdrawal Agreement, signed with the EU earlier this year, that would be a grave error.

The logic of threatening the European Union with legislation that changes portions of the Withdrawal Agreement could be to send a message. ‘If you don’t give us the deal we want, we will renege on the agreement we signed earlier this year. Watch us – we are crazy enough to do it.’ However, it should be pointed out that threatening to back out of an existing international treaty in the hopes of getting a further international treaty agreed is madness, particularly when the two agreements involved have the exact same co-signatory.