(Tiper Stock Exchange) – Yet another negotiating breakthrough of the long divorce of London from the EU it is consumed, this time, prickly Northern Ireland dossier.
The agreement – sealed just under seven years after the referendum that sanctioned Brexit – bears the signatures of the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. In practice, it was a question of formalizing a revision of the Northern Irish protocol signed by the government of Boris Johnson with Brussels, subsequently called into question by London and the subject of months of controversy
A system of green and red corridors that will distinguish internal trade (freed from all bureaucratic constraints) from those of only products “at risk of export” to the EU, one of the major innovations but also a guarantee on the equivalence between Ulster and Great Britain in the barrier-free availability of food, medicines, seeds and other national commodities.
Particularly important is the introduction of the “safety brake” made available to Northern Irish institutions”democratically elected” on any legislative changes by Brussels that may affect Belfast: a brake that can, if necessary, translate into an ad hoc right of veto that can be exercised through the central government of the United Kingdom. In exchange London moreover, it appears destined to continue to accept some role of the European Court of Justice as the final arbiter of possible disputes.
There Windsor card therefore opens a new chapter in bilateral relations”, as the two protagonists of the agreement wanted to underline, during the final joint press conference, exchanging smiles, not without protecting both “the integrity of the single market” (said von der Leyen ); and “the sovereignty of Northern Ireland” (reiterated for his part, Sunak).