The EU will begin legal action on Monday over the UK’s breach of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a source close to the matter has confirmed.
A letter is expected to be issued laying out the grounds on which the EU believes a breach occurred.
A second “political” letter will be sent sharing the arbitration procedures available under the protocol.
This comes after Downing Street unilaterally changed the implementation of Brexit checks on goods coming into Northern Ireland from Britain – allowing for a grace period on checks to be extended.
No 10 insists that its unilateral move did not breach the protocol.
The grace period is set to end at the end of March, but No 10 has pushed that forward to October.
Northern Ireland has remained part of the EU’s single market for goods so products that arrive from Great Britain must be subject to EU import procedures.
The EU has been implementing full checks on goods sent from the UK since the start of this year.
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