In all areas, the UK continues to backtrack.

The European Union argues that we should be subject to rules of the club that we have left.

The precondition is the level playing field.

We can deliver a real Brexit that achieves our objectives.

But if there is not a deal, we still need the Irish protocol or the Northern Irish protocol fully implemented.

I'm going to miss being the pantomime villain. protocol or the Northern Irish protocol fully implemented.

I'm going to miss being the pantomime villain.

Hello and welcome to Brexit Republic, RTE's weekly podcast on Brexit.

I'm Tony Connolly, RTE's Europe editor in Brussels.

And I'm Cullum Ongo Nunggoyne, RTE's Deputy Foreign Editor,

normally in Dublin, but currently for pandemic reasons at home in Kildare. Each week, Brexit Republic brings you all the latest

developments from London, Brussels and Dublin. This week, the EU drops the legal bomb, formally issuing

proceedings against the UK for introducing the internal market bill. We look at how the decision

was reached, what difference it might make to the UK's insistence on keeping the bill intact,

and what impact it will have on the trade negotiations. And ahead of a key phone call between

Ursula von der Leyen and Boris Johnson on Saturday, we'll take the temperature of those negotiations

and will assess

the prospects for any breakthrough that might lead to a tunnel or a submarine.

And we'll check in on the Northern Ireland Protocol and the highly contentious issue of

how to define what goods are at risk of crossing the border into the south.

Our colleague Sean, the London correspondent, Sean Whelan, is not able to be with us again today.

So, Tony, let's get straight in, as Roger Daltrey would say,

...