The United Kingdom begins its unilateral modification of the Northern Ireland protocol

The government of United Kingdom presents this Monday a bill that unilaterally modifies the protocol of North Irelandnegotiated under the Brexit with the European Union (EU), who denounces the violation of a binding international agreement and threatens reprisals.

when more than a month ago London announced his intentions, presented the project as a last resort to calm the political tension in that British region and put pressure on the EU for its renegotiation. “We prefer a negotiated solution, but the EU must be willing to change the protocol,” reiterated Monday the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liz Trussinsisting on the need to “restore political stability” in Northern Ireland.

Brussels has been willing to make “adjustments”, but the contacts between the two parties did not advance and the European authorities warn that if London carries out its plan “they must respond with all the measures at their disposal”.

historic agreement

Since the beginning of the Brexit negotiations in 2017, protecting the precarious balance of forces in Northern Ireland, a British region historically and culturally closely linked to the neighboring Republic of Ireland -EU member country- was always the biggest hurdle to overcome. And despite the fact that the United Kingdom officially left the bloc in February 2020 and completely in January 2021, the “protocol” has always caused tensions, not only between London and Brussels, but also in the regional autonomous institutions of Belfast.

The Good Friday peace deal of 1988, which ended three decades of bloody conflict between Protestant unionists and Northern Irish Catholic republicans, imposed that both parties share power in the regional executive of this British nation of 1.9 million inhabitants.

However, after the historic victory of the Republican Party Sinn Fein -former political arm of the armed group IRA and supporter of the reunification of Ireland- in the regional legislative elections on May 5, the unionist party DUP it blocks the autonomous parliament and refuses to form a government until London modifies the protocol.

put pressure on the EU

To avoid the return of a physical border with the Republic of Ireland, unacceptable to the republicans and which could endanger the fragile peace, the protocol imposes customs controls products arriving in the region from the rest of the UK. Unionists denounce that this threatens their full membership in the country. To remedy this, the executive of Boris Johnson wants to introduce a new system whereby goods arriving from Britain for local consumption in Northern Ireland go through a “new green channel” that bypasses customs controls.

For their part, products destined for the EU common market would continue to be subject to all the checks applied in Community legislation. “They are necessary bureaucratic changes, frankly it is a quite trivial set of adjustments,” the prime minister defended on Monday in statements to the private LBC radio. And he assured that his project, contrary to what the EU claims, is legal.

Before presenting the text to the Parliament in London, Truss called the vice-president of the European Commission in the morning, Maros Sefkovicand his Irish counterpart, simon coveney. Sefcovic assured that the EU had proposed “solutions” and denounced that “unilateral actions undermine mutual trust.” Coveney, with whom the call lasted just 12 minutes, for his part lashed out at a text “that would violate British commitments in terms of international law” and accused Truss of “not having entered into meaningful negotiations with the EU.”

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The United States, which was the guarantor of the Good Friday agreement, has expressed alarm at suggestions that the United Kingdom could unilaterally withdraw the application of the text designed to guarantee peace.

And Sinn Fein defended that “the protocol works”, coinciding with the food association of Northern Ireland, for whom its provisions are “vital for the continuity of trade in goods on the island of Ireland”.