U.K Prime Minister Strikes Northern Ireland Deal With EU

Afimag.com –

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hits a new pact with the European Union on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland on February 27, 2023 with a view to paving way for London’s relationship with the bloc.

Standing alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a news conference in Windsor, Sunak said both countries agreed to remove “any sense of a border” between Britain and its province – a situation that politicians on both sides are not comfortable with.

The agreement commemorates a high-risk strategy for Sunak just four months after he came to power. He wants to improve relations with Brussels – and the United States – without offending the his party most wedded to Brexit.

He immediately got approvals from business groups who would benefit from the easing of trade rules, and a promise from von der Leyen that she would be willing to allow British scientists to join a vast EU research programme if Sunak can get the terms past his party.

The success of the agreement depends on whether it convinces the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to end its boycott of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing arrangements.

These were prominent to the 1998 peace agreement which mostly ended about thirty years of sectarian and political violence in Northern Ireland.

Sunak who said he was pleased to report that they have now made a decisive breakthrough, noted that they had agreed to change the original deal for Northern Ireland, known as the protocol, to create the Windsor Framework

The issue has been one of the most contentious regarding Britain’s 2020 departure from the European Union. A return to a hard border between the province and Ireland, an EU member, could have jeopardized the peace deal known as the Good Friday Agreement.

Sunak is likely to talk up the fact he has secured a so-called “Stormont brake”, which he said would allow Stormont – the regional assembly – to stop any “changes to EU goods rules that would have significant and lasting effects on everyday lives”. “If the break is pulled the UK government will have a veto,” he said.

On her part, Von der Leyen said she hoped the brake could be avoided if the two sides consulted each other extensively when introducing new laws and regulatory changes. She said however that the European Court of Justice retained the final say on EU law.

It remains to be seen whether the new terms will go far enough to end political deadlock in Northern Ireland and satisfy critics in Britain and the province.