Brexit: when the Irish question is invited into the debates on the sidelines of the G7, the tone rises
June 11, 2021: a G7 summit is held in Carbis Bay, in British Cornwall, an opportunity for everyone to draw attention to the societal, environmental, economic fights ... which are dear to them.
AP - Jon Super
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
On the sidelines of the summit of the 7 most industrialized countries, exchanges are lively between participants in the G7 on post-Brexit and especially the question of Northern Ireland.
This file has already been on the menu of talks between Joe Biden and Boris Johnson before the summit and this Saturday morning, the tone is raised.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday called on Europeans to show "pragmatism and compromise" on post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, which is the source of great tension in the British province.
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See also
: Northern Ireland: rising tension within the Unionist community
Boris Johnson "made clear his desire for pragmatism and compromise on the part of all but stressed that protecting the Good Friday (peace) agreement was paramount," Downing Street said after a series of meetings with the French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel.
The latter two had published simultaneously a little earlier on the Twitter network a joint statement: “The two sides must apply what we have agreed on.
The unity of the EU on this subject is total ”, they tweeted, estimating that the measures adopted for Northern Ireland made it possible to“ preserve ”peace in the province.
And this Saturday morning, it was French President Emmanuel Macron who opened hostilities asking the British Prime Minister to respect "the word given to Europeans" in the context of Brexit.
This subject was also discussed during the
meeting between Joe Biden and Boris Johnson on Thursday
and was one of the points of divergence between the two officials.
A border seen as a wound by the loyalists
The European Union accuses London of not respecting, for reasons of internal policy, the protocol on Northern Ireland, with the consequence of putting an evil on a
fragile balance
and favoring the return of a border with the Republic from Ireland.
The Brexit agreement places a borderline between experienced as a wound by the North Irish loyalists who fear above all a political reunification of the island.
To calm their anger, London unilaterally postponed the implementation of certain customs controls on goods until October, a measure to which the Europeans retaliated by launching an
infringement procedure
.
European and British negotiators met in the middle of the week, two days before the G7, to try to find an agreement on this “Northern Irish protocol” negotiated within the framework of Brexit, without success.
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To read also:
failure of discussions on the Northern Irish protocol
with agencies
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