United Kingdom: London and Brussels reach an agreement on Northern Ireland

Europe 1 with AFP 4:49 p.m., February 27, 2023, modified at 4:51 p.m., February 27, 2023

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reached an agreement on Monday to end more than a year of dispute over post-Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland.

The announcement of a compromise to change the Northern Irish protocol was reported by British media citing a British government source, then confirmed by a European source, just an hour after Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Windsor, in west London where she was hosted by Rishi Sunak.

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After months of difficult negotiations, 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 blockage of the institutions of the province but also of stir within the Conservative majority in London.

They must hold a joint press conference around 3:30 p.m. (local and GMT).

Regulation of the movement of goods

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 risk weakening the peace concluded in 1998 after three bloody decades, while protecting the single European market.

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

Sunak hails "a new chapter" for London and the EU

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomed Monday the opening of "a new chapter" in the relationship between London and the European Union thanks to the conclusion of an agreement.

"This is the start of a new chapter in our relationship," Rishi Sunak said, announcing the deal at a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Windsor, on the western outskirts of London. .

The protocol thus generated tensions between the European Union and London but also became an internal problem for Rishi Sunak, faced with the opposition of Brexit hardliners and that of the unionists of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), opposed to any calling into question the membership of Northern Ireland in 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.

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"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."

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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. 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.

For Sunak, avoid a sling in the House of Commons

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.