Britain and the European Union have agreed on changes to the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol. The Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland has not commented on the new agreement.
16:45•Updated 18:21
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirms that Britain and the European Union have reached an agreement on the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol.
– In the future, the goods will be divided into two different lines. Goods going to Northern Ireland use the green lane and products going to the EU go through the red lane, Sunak said.
Sunak negotiated on Monday with the president of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen with.
On the agenda was the so-called Northern Ireland protocol, which has been straining EU-UK relations for a long time.
Britain’s public broadcasting company (you switch to another service) and Sky News (switch to another service) previously reported that the parties reached an agreement on trade arrangements related to Brexit.
The new agreement dismantles the customs border in the Irish Sea
The Northern Ireland Protocol is part of the agreement by which Britain left the European Union in 2021.
Thanks to the trade arrangement, Northern Ireland, which is part of Great Britain, has been allowed to remain part of the European single market.
EU legislation has been in force in Northern Ireland, although the legislation is no longer valid in the rest of Britain.
Prime Minister Sunak said at the press conference that the heavy customs bureaucracy created in the Irish Sea will be removed thanks to the new agreement.
Britain has been willing to dismantle the Northern Ireland Protocol, which regulates trade, for a long time. The EU has been reluctant to make changes to the hard-negotiated agreement, but finally gave in to Britain’s proposal.
In accordance with the British proposal, in the future, goods going to Northern Ireland will not have the same inspections as goods going to Ireland, i.e. the EU territory.
The EU got nervous last year when Britain threatened to break the agreement.
Tensions rose to the limit, but a trade war between the Union and Britain was avoided.
Von der Leyen said during a press conference on Monday that the agreement will have a positive effect on British-EU relations.
– This is the beginning of a new chapter in the relations between the Union and Britain. We may have had disagreements in the past, but we are allies, trading partners and friends, von der Leyen said, referring to the alliance between the EU and Britain in supporting Ukraine.
The Windsor frame gives the DUP a brake
The so-called “Windsor framework” is also included in the agreement, according to which the National Assembly of Northern Ireland gets the right of withdrawal in the application of EU laws.
According to Sunak, the purpose of the process is to give the Northern Ireland Assembly the opportunity to use the emergency brake in situations where EU rules on goods deliveries would significantly affect the lives of Northern Irish people.
If the emergency brake were to be pulled, the British government would have the right to veto the decision.
For now, it is unclear how Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party views the resulting agreement.
Read what the dispute is about in this story: