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A sign from the Protestant party Democratic Unionist Party (DUP): After years of dispute over Brexit rules for the British province of Northern Ireland, there is now an agreement
Photo: Peter Morrison / dpa
To make trade easier, Great Britain wants to end the post-Brexit controls between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. A corresponding change in the law is to be presented, as the British government announced in an 80-page document. The publication is the basis for the end of the political crisis in Northern Ireland.
New regulation no surprise for EU
The main Protestant party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), had made an end to internal British customs controls a condition. The DUP advocates political union with Great Britain and now wants to return to the regional government in Belfast after two years of boycott. The contractually agreed regulation stipulates that the DUP must govern together with the strongest Catholic force, Sinn Féin, which seeks unification with Ireland.
"The only controls that are still being carried out concern goods that are brought into the EU or that could be brought into the EU," said DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson. There was initially no reaction from the EU, which had agreed the previous regulation after a long dispute with Great Britain. The changes affect the so-called Windsor Agreement, which London and Brussels reached around a year ago to facilitate trade with Northern Ireland. The broadcaster Sky News quoted sources saying that the new regulation was no surprise for the EU - Brussels had always been informed.
The current customs border in the Irish Sea is intended to avoid a “hard border” between the former civil war region of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland after Brexit. However, this also caused difficulties, for example when sending parcels, medication and bringing pets from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. British loyalists feared that the controls would endanger the union with Great Britain.
lph/dpa