LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will announce a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland on Monday if they can agree final details during talks. that they will keep at noon in the UK.
The deal is intended to resolve tensions caused by the 2020 post-Brexit agreements governing the British province and its open border with EU member Ireland, but it remains to be seen whether it will go far enough to end the political stalemate in Northern Ireland and satisfy the critics in the UK.
Von der Leyen will travel to the UK for “late lunchtime” talks, after which Sunak will convene a cabinet meeting. His office said that if a deal had been reached, it would be announced at a joint press conference and later to the British parliament by Sunak.
“The Prime Minister wants to ensure that any deal solves the practical problems on the ground, ensures free movement of trade throughout the UK, preserves Northern Ireland’s place in our Union and returns sovereignty to the Northern Irish people,” he said. a statement from Sunak’s office.
Sunak is confident that the success of the negotiation will allow him to focus the attention of voters on internal reforms, as he tries to reduce the huge lead of the opposition Labor Party in opinion polls ahead of the national elections scheduled for 2024.
The deal is expected to ease physical checks on goods moving from the UK to Northern Ireland and give the British province a say in the EU rules it has to apply under the complicated terms of British exit. of the block.
But the deal’s overall success will depend on whether it convinces the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to end its boycott of the power-sharing deal in Northern Ireland.
Power sharing was central to the 1998 peace agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian violence in the province.
SOVEREIGNTY ISSUES
As part of its withdrawal agreement, Britain signed an agreement with Brussels known as the Northern Ireland protocol to avoid the imposition of politically contentious checks along the 500km land border with Ireland.
However, the protocol effectively created a border for some goods coming from the UK, as it kept Northern Ireland in the EU single market for goods. In this way, Northern Ireland was subject to some EU rules even though it was not a member of the bloc.
The perception that the protocol erodes Northern Ireland’s place in the UK has sparked anger among many members of pro-British communities.
(Reporting by William James; Editing by Christina Fincher, Spanish editing by José Muñoz in the Gdańsk newsroom)
