The United Kingdom and the European Union formally adopted, on Friday, the agreement on post-Brexit provisions in Northern Ireland, which has so far not been enough to end the political deadlock in the province, to less than three weeks from the 25e anniversary of the peace agreement.
Intended to facilitate the movement of goods within the United Kingdom while avoiding any physical border – as envisaged by the Good Friday agreement, which ended three decades of violence which left 3,500 dead – the “Windsor framework was concluded in early March by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The new agreement amends the Northern Irish protocol on post-Brexit arrangements in the British province, negotiated as part of Brexit. In particular, it removes routine checks on goods that pose no risk of entering the single European market.
After the signing, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, welcomed to AFP the opening of a “new chapter” and “the positive momentum” in the relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom, after years of sometimes tense relations.
The two parties are committed to “faithfully respect” the signed agreements, he added, welcoming new prospects for economic and political cooperation.
Weeks before the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the EU official said he hopes the Windsor framework will focus for the next 25 years “not only on peace, but also on greater prosperity for Europe”. ‘North Ireland “.
Sovereignty
The advances of the “Windsor framework” are nevertheless considered insufficient by the unionists of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
Viscerally attached to the place of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, they voted on Wednesday in the House of Commons in London against a key provision of the text, which gives the Northern Irish Parliament a right of veto on any new European legislation that would apply in the province.
In doing so, they have showered the hopes of a rapid restart of the Northern Irish institutions, which they have been boycotting for a year.
The provision submitted to the vote of the British Parliament was nevertheless adopted by a very large majority, despite the opposition, in addition to that of the DUP, of certain members of the conservative majority, including the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
On Friday, European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly were due to co-chair two meetings in the British capital to formally adopt the “Windsor framework” and discuss cooperation between London and Brussels on trade. , energy and security.
Quoted in a Foreign Office statement, James Cleverly touted the “Windsor Framework” as “the best deal for Northern Ireland, securing its place in the Union and protecting” the Good Friday Agreement.
The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union has turned into a puzzle, because on the same island and without the possibility of a physical border, there is a British territory and a Member State of the EU: the Republic of Ireland.
In Northern Ireland, the protocol was strongly criticized by the DUP, who saw in its provisions a threat to the place of the province within the United Kingdom. But the DUP also denounced the new agreement between London and Brussels reforming the protocol, believing that it did not offer sufficient guarantees in terms of the sovereignty of the province vis-à-vis European rules.