Yet another breakthrough in Brexit is about to change the relationships between again UK e European Union. The president of the EU commission, Ursula von der Leyen and the British Prime Minister, Rishi sunak, have signed a new agreement on the status ofnorthern Ireland, for years a source of tension and strong controversy both between the parties and within the United Kingdom itself. The agreement was called "Windsor framework” – the Windsor Charter in Italian – and sets the interpretative stakes for a revision of the disputed post-Brexit protocol on Northern Ireland signed in 2020. “A new chapter opens” in relations between the EU and the UK, Sunak and von der Leyen said at the press conference.
The old agreement on Northern Ireland
In 2020 the European Union and the United Kingdom signed a post-Brexit protocol on'Northern Ireland the purpose of which was, on the one hand, to avoid the introduction of hard borders between Northern Ireland, which belongs to the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, which is an EU Member State, on the other to safeguard the integrity of the European single market. At the time, Boris Johnson was in Downing Street, who from the outset had struggled to digest the agreement on the domestic front and who therefore decided last year to backtrack to avoid yet another political earthquake in his mandate .
Under the agreement of three years ago, in fact, Northern Ireland has continued to comply with the EU customs rules, staying in single market of goods and applying EU VAT law in order to avoid border controls between the two Irelands which could have led to a flare-up of the clashes preceding the Good Friday agreements. However, there is a very important counter-indication that has caused a great deal of discontent in the United Kingdom in recent years: the agreement has managed to avoid the introduction of a border between Dublin and Belfast, but in fact created another one between Ireland of the North and the other three nations of the United Kingdom, i.e England, Scotland and Wales.
In recent years, the checks on goods Arriving in Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK had ballooned, as had red tape.
What does the new protocol on Northern Ireland provide for?
After months of negotiations between the EU and the UK, the new post-Brexit protocol signed today, called the "Windsor framework", significantly reduces customs controls between the UK and Northern Ireland. In detail, goods directed to Dublin and therefore to the European Union will have a "red lane” and will be subject to controls, while those destined for Belfast, especially food and medicines, will enjoy a “green lane”. During a joint press conference with President von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak explained that the green lane scheme it will eliminate the need for controls on goods (but not all) from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, thus erasing the feeling that there is a border within the Kingdom.
The agreement also provides for the possibility for the autonomous Northern Irish Parliament to ask for a "Stormont break”, giving him the de facto guarantee of having a say in the rules to be respected. Finally, based on what has been established, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the principal court of the Union, will retain partial jurisdiction in Northern Ireland.
At the press conference Sunak spoke of one “a turning point” able in his words both to keep the borders open with the Republic of Ireland as foreseen by the Good Friday peace and to eliminate any barrier in the transit of internal goods between Ulster and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Von der Leyen, for his part, underlined that the 'Windsor Framework' offers "solid safeguards that they will protect the integrity of the single market” and “respects and protects our respective markets and interests”.
The next steps
Sunak will have to digest the agreement ai conservative party brexiter, who do not accept the role of the European Court, but also al After, the Irish unionist party which for months has paralyzed the executive in Northern Ireland by refusing to participate in the Government with Sinn Fein as envisaged by the Good Friday agreements.
The British prime minister will present the agreement today to the Westminster Parliament which will be called upon to vote on it in the coming weeks. The numbers are there: even with the defection of hard-core brexiters, Sunak could be rescued by Labor Party, who has already said he is willing to vote on the new protocol. However, this risks further widening the internal frictions to a conservative party now in disarray. In fact, we recall that Sunak is the fifth Tory prime minister of the last six years and that Liz Truss, before him at Downing Street, remained on that chair for only 45 days. Certainly not a good precedent.