The British government and the European Union reached a compromise on post-Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland on Monday, hoping to open “a new chapter” after months of tumultuous relations and political gridlock in the British province.
As London and Brussels seemed to be on the verge of a trade war recently over this crisis, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the deal at a joint press conference in Windsor, West London.
It must make it possible both to offer “solid guarantees” to “protect the integrity of the single European market”, underlined Ursula von der Leyen.
“And most importantly, it protects the hard-won peace of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement” which ended the conflict between mostly Protestant Unionists and mostly Catholic Republicans and whose 25th anniversary will be celebrated in April, she insisted.
Signed in 2020, the Northern Ireland Protocol, negotiated by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, regulates the movement of goods between the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland, which has the only land border with the Union European.
This protocol wanted to avoid a land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland which would risk undermining peace, while protecting the single European market.
But it posed practical problems by imposing customs controls on products arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain.
The protocol thus generated tensions between the European Union and London but also became an internal problem for Rishi Sunak, faced with opposition from the right wing of his majority and that of the unionists of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). , opposed to any questioning of the place of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.
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.
The “Windsor framework” presented on Monday “removes the feeling of any border” in the Irish Sea, argued Rishi Sunak, presenting the compromise.
Only goods which present a risk of ending up in the Republic of Ireland, and therefore on the European single market, will be subject to checks.
To respond to the concerns of Unionists, who want to have a say in the application of European rules in Northern Ireland, the local Parliament will have an “emergency brake”. If it is activated, “the British government will have a veto”, underlined Rishi Sunak, welcoming a “powerful” mechanism of “safeguard”.
It remains to be seen whether the compromise reached on Monday will convince the Unionists. The DUP “will take the time to study the details and assess the deal,” DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson tweeted.
To appease the Unionists, London threatened last spring to unilaterally reverse the protocol, angering Dublin and Brussels, which then raised the specter of a trade war.
“We need things to pick up. We need to fix this problem,” Vincent Ward, a 53-year-old Northern Irishman from Newry, in the southeast of the province, told AFP on Monday.
“The way it is now, it has ruined people’s lives and caused a lot of problems,” said Joe O’Hanlan, a 60-year-old living in this border town with Ireland.
In London, Rishi Sunak is preparing for delicate explanations Monday evening in front of the deputies, some of whom have already expressed their dissatisfaction. He must avoid a revolt which would affect his authority after four months in power, but after maintaining the vagueness, he confirmed that the new agreement would be put to a vote “at the appropriate time”.
Ursula von der Leyen is due to meet Charles III, a visit criticized by some who lament that the king finds himself embroiled in such controversial political discussions.
“The King is happy to meet any foreign leader visiting the UK and it is the government’s advice that he do so,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
02/27/2023 17:32:12 – London (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
