An agreement on a revision of the Northern Irish protocol has never seemed so close: the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will meet on Monday with the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak close to London on this highly tense file since Brexit.
Discussions over a review of these post-Brexit arrangements in the British province have intensified in recent weeks to the point that on Sunday morning Dominic Raab, the British Deputy Prime Minister, said a deal was “close to” being agreed. be concluded.
The only land border between the UK and the EU
Negotiations on the protocol were reopened in 2022, leading to strong tensions between London and Brussels. The arrival in October in Downing Street of Rishi Sunak, yet a Brexiter from the start, brought a certain appeasement. On Wednesday again, he explained that he was “continuing to fight” to obtain concessions from the EU.
At the heart of this protocol, negotiated at the same time as the Brexit treaty and signed in 2020: the thorny question of the border between the United Kingdom and the European Union after Brexit.
It effectively keeps Northern Ireland, which has Britain’s only land border with the EU, in the single European market. It thus imposes customs controls between this British province and the rest of the United Kingdom on the arrival of goods in Northern Ireland. This protocol wanted to avoid a land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland which would risk weakening the peace concluded in 1998 after three bloody decades.
But this text faces fierce opposition from hard Brexiters in London and unionists in Belfast who see it as a threat to the province’s status within the country. The Northern Irish Unionist Party (DUP), which stubbornly refuses any de facto application of European law in the province, has been blocking the functioning of the local executive for a year.
An appeasement since the arrival of Sunak in Downing Street
Negotiations on the protocol were reopened in 2022, leading to strong tensions between London and Brussels. The arrival in October in Downing Street of Rishi Sunak, yet a Brexiter from the start, brought a certain appeasement. Again on Wednesday, he explained “to continue to fight” to obtain concessions from the EU.
In the newspaper Sunday Times, he appealed to his divided party on Sunday, explaining that the negotiated agreement is not a threat to Brexit but aims to “make sure that Brexit works in every region of the United Kingdom”. “The work on Brexit remains unfinished and I want the work done,” he said.
If Rishi Sunak manages to agree on Monday with Ursula Von der Leyen, he will still have to face his colleagues. On this issue, he faces strong opposition from elected Conservatives, in particular his predecessor Boris Johnson, who rejected the protocol in 2022 two years after signing it.
Waiting for a “Windsor agreement”
The meeting between Rishi Sunak and Ursula Von der Leyen will take place in Berkshire where the city of Windsor is located, west of London.
One of the residences of King Charles III is in Windsor. British media have claimed that Rishi Sunak has considered the possibility of calling any text modifying the application of the Northern Irish protocol “Windsor agreement”.
A press conference could take place after the meeting. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Twitter on Sunday that he had been in contact with Ursula Von der Leyer on Sunday. “We must acknowledge the level of engagement between the UK government, the European Commission and the parties in Northern Ireland over the past few months,” he wrote.