After months of tensions, 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 old compromise.

The once-dreaded sausage war will not take place: British chilled meat will be able to be sold on Northern Irish shelves, while English people will be able to send parcels to loved ones in Belfast without a customs declaration or go 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), fiercely opposed to the old Northern Irish protocol, 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 near Belfast.

"So now I hope they'll see that's the case and find a way to get back together," he said, without naming the DUP.

- "The impossible"?-

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 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.

"Has Rishi achieved the impossible?"

headlines the tabloid The Daily Mail on Tuesday.

For the Telegraph, it is the Prime Minister's "best day" since his arrival in Downing Street in October.

While the text must be submitted to the vote of the deputies, the Prime Minister must explain himself Monday afternoon to elected representatives of his majority, in particular the "European research group" which brings together eurosceptics.

The position of the DUP

If the British government seems for the moment to have avoided the dreaded revolt of the right wing of its majority, it remains to be seen what the position of the DUP will be, opposed to any questioning of the place of Northern Ireland within from the United Kingdom.

The party has been blocking the functioning of the local executive for a year, demanding an abandonment of the protocol and refusing any de facto application of European law in the British province.

To address unionist concerns, the local parliament will have a mechanism to block the application of new EU 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.

Ian Paisley, a DUP MP, has already said the new deal was "not up to par".

“It is completely understandable that they (the DUP unionists) want to examine the details of this project”, reacted on Sky News the British Minister for Foreign Affairs, James Cleverly.

But "if they don't return to the power-sharing executive, it will be hugely disappointing."

© 2023 AFP