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UK and EU extend post-Brexit grace period over Northern Ireland indefinitely
Plans for post-Brexit checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland have been suspended indefinitely by the UK after negotiations with the EU reached a stalemate.
Grace periods designed to ease the transition into new trading arrangements and checks on the island of Ireland have twice been extended as part of diplomatic wrangling labelled “the sausage wars”.
On Monday evening David Frost, who is leading negotiations with the EU about updating the contentious Northern Ireland protocol, revealed a fresh extension, with no new deadline set for the completion of talks.
...
While Brussels withheld its formal agreement on the move, the EU will hold back from launching legal proceedings over the extension of the status quo, with a spokesman saying the European Commission is “not moving to the next stage of the infringement procedure launched in March 2021, and is not opening any new infringements for now”. Sources said a number of key EU leaders felt there was little to gain from confronting Boris Johnson’s government.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/06/uk-and-eu-extend-post-brexit-grace-period-over-northern-ireland-protocol
Grace periods designed to ease the transition into new trading arrangements and checks on the island of Ireland have twice been extended as part of diplomatic wrangling labelled “the sausage wars”.
On Monday evening David Frost, who is leading negotiations with the EU about updating the contentious Northern Ireland protocol, revealed a fresh extension, with no new deadline set for the completion of talks.
...
While Brussels withheld its formal agreement on the move, the EU will hold back from launching legal proceedings over the extension of the status quo, with a spokesman saying the European Commission is “not moving to the next stage of the infringement procedure launched in March 2021, and is not opening any new infringements for now”. Sources said a number of key EU leaders felt there was little to gain from confronting Boris Johnson’s government.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/06/uk-and-eu-extend-post-brexit-grace-period-over-northern-ireland-protocol
So, basically, the UK government has painted itself into a corner which it doesn't like, and from which it's unable to negotiate itself out, but the EU doesn't think the hassle of enforcing what the UK agreed to (the "over-ready deal"
is worth it. We're now relying on the pity of the EU.