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At Monday’s meeting in Belfast, Boris Johnson stated his inclination towards unilateral removal of trade rules for Northern Ireland. This upset Sinn Fein at the same time as it increased tension between London and the European Union.
This Monday, May 16, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, met in Belfast with the five regional political forces of Northern Ireland.
After the meeting, the premier stressed that “neither party likes how” the Northern Ireland Protocol operates, created in order to prevent the return of a hard physical border on the island of Ireland after Brexit and to preserve the Peace Agreement of Good Friday in 1998.
“Everyone believes it can be reformed and improved,” Johnson added.
In effect, he considered that the Government needs a “safe” option to unilaterally eliminate the commercial rules for Northern Ireland after Brexit. “We would love to see this done consensually with our friends and partners, ironing out some of these issues,” Johnson said.
However, it is necessary to “proceed with a legislative solution at the same time”, in case the talks with the European Union fail to improve the functioning of the Protocol. Something that the community club has been demanding for a long time.
Although Johnson did not give details of any legislative proposal that could effectively get rid of parts of the Protocol, his government could present a plan on Tuesday to unilaterally remove its most contentious parts.
Sinn Fein sees Boris Johnson’s proposal with bad eyes
Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said the meeting with Johnson was “pretty tough” in that she felt taking unilateral action on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland would be a mistake.
“We have told him directly that the proposed unilateral act of legislating at Westminster is a mistake. We find it absolutely extraordinary that the British Government is proposing to legislate to break the law,” explained McDonald.
Indeed, the leader of Sinn Fein, whose party seeks the reunification of the island of Ireland and is now the largest in the region after the regional elections held this month, accused the British Government of “cynical antics” and of “placating to the DUP”.
For its part, the EU has said that renegotiating the protocol is not an option, but that it is open to working together to provide long-term security.
Dublin calls for calm
EU member Ireland warned that a unilateral move by Britain could jeopardize the entire post-Brexit trade deal and called for calm.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told a meeting with his EU peers in Brussels that a disagreement between the UK and the EU bloc “is the last thing Europe needs at the moment”, alluding to the war. in Ukraine.
“This is a time for calm. This is a time for dialogue. This is a time for engagement and partnership between the EU and the UK to resolve these outstanding issues,” Coveney said.
The Irish Prime Minister, Micheal Martin, agreed with him, confessing that after speaking with the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, he came to the conclusion that “the only way to resolve this issue is through substantial talks between the European Union and the UK government.
The Northern Ireland Protocol
Northern Irish institutions are paralyzed by the refusal of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to participate in them. This, after losing in the regional legislative elections to the Republican party Sinn Fein, which seeks union with the Republic of Ireland.
The DUP opposes the “Northern Ireland Protocol” as it believes it damages the relationship between Northern Ireland and the UK by imposing customs controls on products arriving from the rest of the country. However, most other Northern Ireland parties want to keep it, albeit with some modifications.
Following Brexit, the United Kingdom and the European Union agreed to keep Ireland’s land border clear of customs posts. This is because an open border is a vital part of the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement, which ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
Instead there are controls on some products, such as meat and eggs, coming into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
With EFE, AP, AFP and Reuters
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