Political relations between UK-EU

[bluethrunthru]

as predicted

EU takes new legal action against UK over post-Brexit deal changes

Brussels says altering the Northern Ireland Protocol breaks international law, but the UK disputes this.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[west didsblue]

Can’t disagree with any of that, good post. I’d only add by saying I’m not sure the EU sees itself as irrelevant here and therein lay the problem, the EU wants to be “more” to do more. At some point the EU needs to ask the question can we be that “more”. The arguments for enlargement of the EU remit are compelling against a backdrop of Russian aggression, the arguments for not doing so will surely result in louder nationalistic voices. It’s horseshit politics as we can pay testimony to. Maybe I’ve got it all wrong they’ll just keep dancing around this particular elephant in the room.

I'll answer this here rather than divert the Russia thread.

I think the one thing that has become clear since the Russian invasion and also since Covid is that when it comes to the big decisions the individual countries will make decisions first and foremost in their own national interest which is one of the key things that the Brexiteers were scaremongering about (i.e. making out sovereign states were subservient to the "unelected" EU).

Bottom line is that it is a trading club whose rules and powers do not stop members making their own decisions on the big issues when it affects their own national interest. So the control we have taken back thanks to leaving, we actually already had when it came to the big decisions.

You're right that the EU aspires to do more but the members seem very unlikely to relinquish their right to act independently when they feel it is in their own national interest.