The French Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed Friday, during a meeting with her British counterpart in Paris, her “concern” about the implementation of the Northern Irish protocol, of which London intends, unilaterally, to modify certain points.

Catherine Colonna told Liz Truss of "her wish for a lasting solution, in compliance with the agreement signed between the European Union and the United Kingdom", indicated the spokeswoman for the Quai d'Orsay during an electronic press briefing.

The thorny problem of the border

Negotiated between London and Brussels in the context of Brexit, the Northern Irish protocol was designed to try to resolve the thorny problem of the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, member of the European Union.

It was signed to protect Europe's single market after Brexit without causing the return of a hard border and thus preserve the peace reached in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement, after three decades of bloody unrest between Unionists and Republicans.

Warnings from Brussels

To this end, the protocol established a customs border in the Irish Sea.

But this situation disrupts supplies and sows anger in the Unionist community attached to remaining within the United Kingdom.

After threatening to override this international treaty which it negotiated and signed, the government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson chose to legislate to modify it unilaterally.

On Monday, British MPs adopted at first reading a unilateral revision of customs provisions in Northern Ireland, despite warnings from Brussels which warned that such a measure would justify trade retaliation.

Boris Johnson's government "continues to make election campaign after election campaign on Brexit," said a French diplomatic source, who warns that no member state of the European Union will agree to reopen negotiations.

“You have to say things.

It's a very bad method of negotiation to do this type of forcing, "said this source.

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