Agreement reached between London and the European Union on the Northern Irish protocol

Is this finally the end point to the difficult post-Brexit negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union?

An agreement on a revision of the Northern Irish protocol was finally reached on Monday February 27.

This announcement of a compromise to modify the Northern Irish protocol was reported by British media citing a British government source, then confirmed by a European source, just an hour after the arrival of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen in west London where she was greeted by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The two leaders met in a hotel in Windsor for what they had presented as "final" discussions on this file, at the origin of the blocking of the institutions of Northern Ireland, but also of turmoil within the Conservative majority in London.

They are to hold a joint press conference in the afternoon. 

Political blockage for 1 year

Signed in 2020, the Northern Ireland protocol, negotiated after Brexit by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, regulates the movement of goods between the rest of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, which has the only land border with the European Union.

This protocol wanted to avoid a land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland which would have risked weakening the peace concluded in 1998 between the two countries, after three bloody decades, while protecting the single European market.

But it posed practical problems in particular by imposing customs controls on goods from Great Britain arriving in Northern Ireland, even if they were intended to remain in the British province.

This protocol has thus generated tensions between the European Union and London but has also become an internal problem for the current British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who faces opposition from 'Brexit hardliners' and Democratic Unionists. Unionist Party (DUP) in Belfast.

The latter, opposed to any questioning of Northern Ireland's membership of the United Kingdom, refuse any de facto application of European law in the British province and have blocked the functioning of the local executive for a year. 

>> To read also: Two years later, Brexit has put the United Kingdom in a situation of economic "weakness"

"We need things to pick up again. We have to fix this problem," Vincent Ward, a 53-year-old Northern Irishman from Newry, in the southeast of the province, told AFP on Monday.

"People need to know what awaits them," said Joe O'Hanlan, a 60-year-old living in this border town with Ireland.

"The way it is now, it has ruined people's lives and caused a lot of problems."

To calm the Unionists, London threatened last spring to unilaterally reconsider the agreement, angering Dublin and Brussels, which then raised the specter of a trade war.

The agreement reached on Monday should therefore make it possible to relaunch the often acrimonious relations in recent years between the British government and the 27.

Convince Eurosceptics

On the British side, the turmoil is not necessarily over.

The DUP "will take the time to study the details and assess the deal," DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson tweeted.

Anonymous sources strike again.

We'll take our time to consider the detail and measure a deal against our seven tests.

PS - A busy day and no dinner planned either - story entirely fictional.

Let's stick to the facts @irish_news pic.twitter.com/vwSgyVBYGp

— Jeffrey Donaldson MP (@J_Donaldson_MP) February 27, 2023

After his press conference with Ursula von der Leyen, Rishi Sunak must return to London to address MPs in the House of Commons.

His explanations promise to be delicate: he must avoid a revolt which would affect his authority after four months in power.

Some of his majority's hardline Eurosceptics have already criticized a compromise that improves the protocol without undermining its principle of keeping some European rules in Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen will meet Charles III, a visit criticized by some who lament that the king finds himself embroiled in such contentious 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.

With AFP

The summary of the

France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 app