The two politicians personally tried to find a solution to the Northern Ireland dispute on Monday.
(Photo: AP)
London The European Union and Great Britain are said to have reached an agreement in the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol. This is reported by several news agencies and British media. They cite sources within the UK government and EU circles.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met in London on Monday. Both had decided to continue working personally on practical solutions for the Northern Ireland Protocol. A press conference has been announced for the afternoon.
The Northern Ireland Protocol is part of the Brexit Treaty on Britain’s exit from the EU. It stipulates that the customs border between Great Britain and the EU runs in the Irish Sea.
This was to prevent border controls between British Northern Ireland and the EU member Republic of Ireland having to be introduced. Otherwise it was expected that the conflict about unifying the two parts of Ireland would flare up again.
But the controls are also creating difficulties for intra-British trade, and Union’s Protestant supporters in Northern Ireland feel cut off from Britain. London therefore wanted to renegotiate the contract.
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Crucial to the success of an agreement is therefore whether Sunak will manage to get the largest Protestant Unionist party in Northern Ireland, the DUP, behind him. In protest against the protocol, they have been blocking the formation of a government in the British part of the country for months and are demanding drastic changes.
The hard core of Brexit supporters in the British Tory party and his predecessor Boris Johnson also warned Prime Minister Sunak against making too many concessions to the EU.
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