British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak traveled to Northern Ireland on Tuesday to convince people of the benefits of the “historic” agreement reached with the European Union on post-Brexit provisions, hoping to end more than a year of deadlock politics in the province.
After months of tension, Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday presented a new agreement amending the Northern Ireland protocol, which is supposed to offer practical solutions to supply difficulties and political concerns created by the former compromise.
The once-dreaded sausage war will not take place: British chilled meat can be sold on Northern Irish shelves while English people can send parcels to loved ones in Belfast without customs declaration or travel to the province with their dog without a veterinary certificate.
Rishi Sunak must now convince the main unionist party, the ultra-conservative Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), to adhere to the new compromise and lift its boycott of the local executive, paralyzed for a year. The movement reserves its response.
It is “a fantastic agreement that meets everything that matters to people”, assured Rishi Sunak while visiting a Coca Cola factory, a drink he is fond of, near Belfast. “Hopefully they’ll see that’s the case and find a way to get back together,” he said.
After a call with Rishi Sunak, the leader of Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland (local parliament majority) Michelle O’Neill urged on Twitter to maintain momentum, saying the priority now is for local institutions to be “without delay “in working order.
But by praising the unique position of Northern Ireland, both in the British and European single market, “the most exciting economic area in the world” according to Rishi Sunak, the head of government has drawn the taunts of anti -Brexit, while the fulfillment of the promises of leaving the EU are still awaited.
Called the “Windsor framework”, the new agreement aims in particular to allow more fluid trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, made complex with the old protocol negotiated in 2020 by Boris Johnson.
This protocol wanted to avoid a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland which would risk undermining peace after decades of conflict, while protecting the single European market.
It created a de facto border in the Irish Sea, unacceptable for Unionists who defend the province’s membership of the United Kingdom. It also posed practical problems, in particular by imposing customs controls on products arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain.
With the new compromise, only goods destined to be exported to the Republic of Ireland, therefore to the single European market, will be subject to controls.
With the approach of the 25th anniversary in April of the peace agreement that ended the bloody unrest (3,500 dead in three decades), the agreement was hailed on Monday as an “essential step” for peace by US President Joe Biden and enthusiastically received by Paris, Berlin, Dublin and British business circles.
While the text must be submitted to the vote of the deputies, the Prime Minister continued the after-sales service of his agreement at the end of the day on Tuesday in front of elected representatives of his majority, in the hope of nipping in the bud any possible inclinations of internal sling.
Eurosceptic Steve Baker, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, stressed that he did not see “how we could have a better deal”. “Now we are waiting to see if the DUP agrees, holding our breath,” he said.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar meanwhile said it was “reasonable” to give the DUP the time it needed to consider the deal.
To meet Unionists’ expectations, the local Parliament will have a mechanism to block the application of new European rules in Northern Ireland.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said on Tuesday that the agreement “partly addresses the concerns”: “There are still issues that we continue to discuss with the government and we will take our time” to study it.
02/28/2023 20:00:49 – Lisburn (Royaume-Uni) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP