Vice-President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic announced on Wednesday that the European Union is launching two further infringement processes against the United Kingdom for its breaches of the Brexit agreement. One will target the UK's alleged failure to enforce border controls in Northern Ireland and another failing to provide the EU with "essential trade statistics data to enable it to protect the single market."
Sefcovic also stressed the EU's proposals for simplified border procedures after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed the UK introduced a bill to change the Northern Ireland Protocol in order to introduce "some bureaucratic simplifications." He reiterated the EU will not renegotiate either the protocol or the agreement on the whole, although it remains flexible and open to negotiations on their implementation, adding that the UK's bill is illegal and "extremely damaging to mutual trust and respect."
