Hopes are high as the summit between London and Brussels approaches, scheduled for Monday February 27, which will focus on the Northern Irish protocol, a post-Brexit dispute that has been the subject of negotiations for years. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is due to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen near London in the middle of the day for “final talks”, Downing Street said on Sunday evening.
Rishi Sunak will then meet with his key ministers, including the Minister for Northern Ireland to update them on these discussions, and if they allow an agreement, a press conference between Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen is planned in late afternoon before the British Prime Minister goes to the House of Commons to brief MPs.
The Northern Ireland Protocol, signed in January 2020, regulates the movement of goods between the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland, which has the only land border with the European Union. It thus imposes customs controls between this British province and the rest of the United Kingdom on the arrival of goods in Northern Ireland.
This protocol wanted to avoid a land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland which would risk weakening the peace concluded in 1998 after three bloody decades. It generated tension between the European Union and London but also became an internal problem for Rishi Sunak, who faced opposition from Brexit hardliners and Unionists in Belfast. The latter refuse any de facto application of European law in the British province and have blocked the functioning of the local executive for a year.
Hours before the meeting between Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen was announced, a member of the eurosceptic wing of the prime minister’s party warned that parliament should not rush to agree to a deal. “Ignoring parliament usually ends badly,” Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group, told Sky News. “We need to get rid of EU law in Northern Ireland,” he argued.
The arrival in October in Downing Street of Rishi Sunak, yet a Brexiteer from the start, brought relief. “Over the past few months, hundreds of hours of discussions” have taken place, according to Downing Street.
Again on Wednesday, Rishi Sunak explained that he was “continuing to fight” to obtain concessions from the EU. Writing in The Sunday Times newspaper, he appealed to his divided party on Sunday, saying the deal being discussed is not a threat to Brexit but aims to “make sure Brexit works in every region from the United Kingdom “. “The work on Brexit remains unfinished and I want the job done,” he said.
If Rishi Sunak manages to agree on Monday with Ursula von der Leyen, he will still have to face his colleagues. On this issue, he faces strong opposition from elected Conservatives, including his predecessor Boris Johnson, who rejected the protocol in 2022 two years after signing it.
The meeting between Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen will take place in Berkshire where the city of Windsor is located, west of London. One of the residences of King Charles III is in Windsor. British media have claimed that Rishi Sunak considered the possibility of calling any text modifying the application of the Northern Irish protocol the “Windsor Accord”.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Twitter that he was in contact with Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday. “We must acknowledge the level of engagement between the UK government, the European Commission and the parties in Northern Ireland over the past few months,” he wrote.
