The European Commission claims that new criteria introduced by the Boris Johnson government regarding offshore wind projects violate the agreed subsidy rules. Brussels has told the WTO that the change means the UK now favors British companies using domestic wind turbines – rather the imported “content” – when it comes to subsidies. “This violates the basic WTO doctrine that imports must be able to compete on an equal footing with domestic products and harms EU suppliers,” the commission said. British officials are said to have been confused by the timing of the move. “At a time when the West needs to unite to defeat Putin, this act of envy from Brussels is misguided and untimely,” a Whitehall source told the Financial Times. They added: “We need to work together to strengthen European clean energy security – not to fight it in the courts.” “Our policies to boost Britain’s offshore wind industry are comparable to many other programs in the EU, so we wonder why Brussels is challenging our plan when they are doing almost the same thing.” The UK government has said it will “strongly challenge” the EU challenge. The two sides have two months to reach an agreement before the EU decides whether to ask the WTO for an arbitration panel. The dispute comes as the two sides remain at loggerheads over the Northern Ireland Protocol, with Foreign Secretary Liz Trass insisting that the suspension of agreed trade arrangements for the province remains on the table. The UK is also facing a heavy fine for a European court ruling that the British government was negligent in allowing EU markets to be flooded with cheap Chinese-made clothes and shoes. The European Court of Justice has ruled that Britain has “failed to meet its obligations” regarding customs controls, while one EU member has failed to “fight fraud” in footwear and textiles. Meanwhile, Chatham House, the director of the top think tank on international affairs, urged the Johnson administration to use its leadership role in the Ukraine crisis to repair relations with the EU. “A more specific UK-EU security dialogue could also emerge from the Russia-Ukraine crisis,” said Dr Robin Niblet, suggesting that London and Brussels could work more formally in defense areas such as cyberspace. information and misinformation. Dr Niblet warned that ongoing protocol deadlocks and other trade disputes could prevent us from being able to work together on more “critical” issues. “There remains a danger that allowing these areas of disagreement and friction in the economic sphere to persist and possibly erupt will undermine the desire of both sides to forge a closer relationship in foreign and security policy – as it still is today. more critical, “he said. . Ms Trus suggested at the weekend that the crisis in Ukraine had put the Protocol dispute in perspective. “The scale of the issue we are facing with Russia is so great, it is so important, it is so vital that we are all together,” he told the Sunday Telegraph. The foreign minister said the option of activating Article 16 and suspending parts of the protocol remained an option, but added: “I am working to rectify it urgently.”
