The EU has given Britain a two-month deadline to respond to legal action as it responded to Boris Johnson’s plan to tear up the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Maros Sefcovic, vice-president of the European Commission, said UK legislation to override parts of the protocol, which governs Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements, was illegal.
The commission confirmed that Brussels will resume legal proceedings against the UK, which it suspended in September, for breaching the EU withdrawal treaty agreed in 2020.
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Mr Sefcovic said: “If the UK doesn’t reply within two months we may take them to the court of justice.”
Brussels is also launching two new legal infringement actions against the UK.
Mr Sefcovic said: “Let there be no doubt: there is no legal nor political justification whatsoever for unilaterally changing an international agreement.
“This is illegal. The UK bill is extremely damaging to mutual trust and respect between the EU and the UK.
“It has created deep uncertainty and casts a shadow over our international cooperation.”
The Northern Ireland Protocol was designed to avoid the return of a hard border with the Republic of Ireland as a result of Brexit.
But it has in effect created a border in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, meaning goods exported from Britain are subject to customs checks.
The UK government says that had created a headache for businesses and the power-sharing arrangements set up as a result of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
The unionist DUP has refused to rejoin the power-sharing executive until the problems are resolved.
Britain has claimed that attempts to renegotiate the deal with Europe have hit a dead end.
It decided to push ahead with legislation to change the protocol, which was published earlier this week, despite warnings it would be illegal under international law and could provoke a trade war with Europe.
