First modification:
This Tuesday, the British Foreign Minister, Liz Truss, who is the United Kingdom’s negotiator before the European Union, officially announced the will of the Government of Boris Johnson to promote new legislation that will unilaterally modify the Ireland Protocol of the North signed before the British exit from the community bloc, which guarantees that the land border remains invisible to preserve the Good Friday Peace Agreements on the island.
The remarks follow British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s meeting with Northern Ireland’s five regional political forces on Monday, where he stated that the parties had expressed their dissatisfaction with the operation of the Northern Ireland protocol.
The new legislation will be introduced in the coming weeks to make the changes, however, the United Kingdom assures that it maintains its decision to continue with a negotiated solution with the European Union “if the same result can be achieved through an agreement”, he said. the British minister.
The bill will give the government the power to decide on spending, tax policies and bring the protocol in line with international standards, help address governance issues and take further action to protect the union’s single market “by implementation of strong sanctions for those who seek to abuse the new system and will continue to ensure that there is no hard border on the island of Ireland,” according to Truss.
Likewise, this new legislation will have an explicit power to give effect to a new revised protocol that protects the Belfast agreement, a decision that for the minister is urgent and cannot be delayed any longer.
The controversy surrounding the Protocol, new tension with Sinn Fein
The Protocol, which has been the subject of various controversies, establishes an invisible border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and allows the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998 to be maintained, which established the balance of government between Protestants and Catholics by putting end more than 30 years of violence.
On the one hand, the Protocol is defended by the republican nationalists of Sinn Fein, who promote ties with Ireland and the European Union. The party president, Mary Lou McDonald, considers that taking unilateral measures on post-Brexit trade rules is a mistake, expressing that it seems extraordinary that the British Government proposes to legislate to break the law.
On the other, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), ensures that the agreement separates the province from the rest of the United Kingdom by creating an unnecessary border in the Irish Sea.
The controversy has raised fears of a trade war, something that the British Prime Minister has rejected saying that it is unlikely and that, given the duty that the government has under international law with the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process, it must carry out a renegotiation in which some commercial barriers are eliminated that, he assures, harm the local economy and undermine the East-West relationship.
“Out of necessity, we can make some changes, the protocol is not the law of the Medes and Persians and I agree, it is in article 13.8, which says that if things do not work, you can change it. Also, the text makes it very clear that trade and the integrity of the UK’s internal market must be guaranteed, so let’s fix it, we don’t want to ban it, we want to fix it and we will work with our union partners to do so,” the premier said.
Johnson also pointed out that they must focus on solving the political situation in Northern Ireland, where the Executive has not been launched due to tensions around the Protocol, led by Sinn Fein, winner of the regional elections, and the DUP, which lost its power after decades.
The European Union categorically rejects any unilateral adjustment
For its part, the European Union has insisted that any adjustment to the Protocol must be made within the existing framework and not unilaterally. The community negotiator, Maros Sefcovic, expressed that the decision to modify it generates great concern and that it is not acceptable.
“If the United Kingdom decides to go ahead with the law that it has announced, which removes constituent elements of the Protocol, the European Union must respond with all the measures at its disposal,” said Sefcovic.
Furthermore, he added that the relationship between London and Brussels must be based on full respect for the legally binding commitments that the two parties have made to each other.
With information from EFE and AP
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