Irish Prime Minister Michael Martincalled on Friday British government to respect the international treaties it signed and to undertake “serious negotiations” with the European Union on post-brexit provisions in Northern Irelandplunged into a political crisis.
(Read here: UK announces plan to amend Northern Ireland protocol)
“I believe in an order based on international norms that respects international treaties solemnly agreed by sovereign governments and that are not arbitrarily and unilaterally abandoned when it suits one of the parties,” Martin said at a press conference after meeting in Belfast with political leaders. of that British region.
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London’s threat to act unilaterally to modify the so-called “Northern Irish protocol”signed with Brussels in the framework of Brexit, provoked angry reactions from Brussels to Washington.
London wants to thoroughly renegotiate the text, while the EU is only willing to make adjustments. Risking trade retaliation from Europeansthe British government threatened on Tuesday, after months of fruitless discussions, to legislate unilaterally in the coming weeks to reverse these provisions.
While acknowledging the “legitimate problems” raised by the protocol, Martin warned that “the only way to resolve this is through professional and serious negotiations between the UK government and the European Union.”
I believe in an order based on international rules that respects international treaties solemnly agreed upon by sovereign governments
The protocol is at a center of the political deadlock in Northern Ireland. The unionist party DUP refuses to participate in a regional executive with the Sinn Fein republicans, who won the elections on May 5, as long as the customs controls imposed by the protocol between the region and the rest of the United Kingdom are maintained.
They also refused to name a president of the autonomous regional parliament, effectively blocking its functioning.
The DUP stood firm on Friday: “We will not fully return to political institutions until decisive action is taken on protocol,” said its leader Jeffrey Donaldson.
The protocol was signed to protect the single European market after the ‘bexit’ without causing the return of a physical border between British Northern Ireland and the neighboring Republic of Ireland – a member country of the EU – and thus preserve the peace agreed in 1998 after three decades of bloody conflict between unionists and republicans.
Refuting the claims of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, Donaldson argued that it is the protocol, and not possible unilateral action by London, that threatens peace in Northern Ireland.
Pelosi tweeted “deep concern” about the British government’s intentions and warned that the US Congress would block a free trade deal with the UK if peace in Ireland is threatened.
The United States was guarantor of the peace agreement in 1998. A delegation of US lawmakers arrived in Brussels for talks with the European Commission, before traveling to London, Dublin and Belfast.
AFP
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