By Elizabeth Piper and Sachin Ravikumar
LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak struck a new deal with the European Union on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland on Monday and said it would pave the way for a new chapter in London’s relationship with the bloc.
Standing alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a news conference in Windsor, Sunak said the two sides had agreed to remove “any sense of a border” between Britain and its province – a situation that had angered politicians on both sides.
The agreement marks a high-risk strategy for Sunak just four months after he took office. He is looking to secure improved relations with Brussels – and the United States – without angering the wing of his party most wedded to Brexit.
He immediately won plaudits from business groups who welcomed the easing of trade rules, and a promise from von der Leyen that she would be willing to allow British scientists to join a vast EU research programme if Sunak can get the deal past his party.
The success of the deal is likely to hinge on whether it convinces the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to end its boycott of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing arrangements. These were central to the 1998 peace agreement which mostly ended three decades of sectarian and political violence in Northern Ireland.
“I’m pleased to report that we have now made a decisive breakthrough,” Sunak said, adding they had agreed to change the original deal for Northern Ireland, known as the protocol, to create the “Windsor Framework”.
“This is the beginning of a new chapter in our relationship.”
The issue has been one of the most contentious regarding Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2020. A return to a hard border between the province and Ireland, an EU member, could have could have jeopardised the peace deal known as the Good Friday Agreement.
Sunak is likely to talk up the fact he has secured a so-called “Stormont brake”, which he said would allow Stormont – the regional assembly – to stop any “changes to EU goods rules that would have significant and lasting effects on everyday lives”. “If the break is pulled the UK government will have a veto,” he said.
Von der Leyen said she hoped the brake could be avoided if the two sides consulted each other extensively when introducing new laws and regulatory changes. She said however that the European Court of Justice retained the final say on EU law.
It remains to be seen whether the new terms will go far enough to end political deadlock in Northern Ireland and satisfy critics in Britain and the province.
FUTURE REBELLION?
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, speaking before news of an agreement emerged, said they would take time to look at the details before deciding whether to accept it.
The European Research Group, which brings together pro-Brexit Conservative lawmakers, have also said they will study the details before giving their verdict, a process that could take days.
Victory would strengthen Sunak’s hold over his Conservative Party and enable him to move past the most contentious issue on his agenda as he seeks to catch up with the opposition Labour Party, now well ahead in opinion polls, before a national election expected in 2024.
Were he to fail, he would probably face a rebellion from the eurosceptic wing of his party, reviving the deep ideological divisions that have at times paralysed the government since the vote to leave the EU in 2016.
Sunak could have left the standoff unresolved, but officials in London and Belfast say he has been motivated to act ahead of the 25-year anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which could entail a visit from U.S. President Joe Biden.
Biden, who often speaks with pride of his Irish roots, has expressed concern about the stand-off in the province. U.S. officials had previously warned that any action which endangered the Good Friday Agreement could harm the prospects of a US-UK trade deal.
Sunak is hoping that a successful outcome will improve cooperation with the EU in areas beyond Northern Ireland, including the regulation of financial services and help to stem an influx of migrants in small boats across the Channel.
He said British lawmakers would have a vote in time.
As part of its exit agreement, Britain signed an accord with Brussels known as the Northern Ireland protocol to avoid imposing politically contentious checks along the 500-km (310-mile) land border with Ireland.
But the protocol effectively created a border for some goods moving from Britain because it kept Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods. That also left Northern Ireland subject to some EU rules even though it was not a member of the bloc.
Perceptions that the protocol erodes Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom have caused anger among many in unionist communities.
(Writing by Kate Holton, Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Angus MacSwan)
A risk taken, UK’s Sunak announces the Windsor Framework
- Talks to improve trade rules held in secret
- Tone between two sides improved under Sunak
- No vote in parliament this week
By Elizabeth Piper
LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Britain’s Rishi Sunak took a risk when he decided to hold talks on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland in secret, offering few details beyond reassurance to two political groups which have a history of making life hard for prime ministers.
Sunak saw secrecy as crucial to restoring trust with the European Union after relations were tested to breaking point under predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, who took a hard line and were accused of hurting talks by negotiating in public.
But it was secrecy that fostered suspicion among two big hitters in the years-long Brexit debate – the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Northern Ireland’s biggest unionist party, and the pro-Brexit Conservative European Research Group (ERG).
With both groups saying they will now consider the detail of Monday’s deal before offering a verdict, Sunak will hope the changes he has negotiated will overcome the sourness that has coloured the weeks-long build up to what he called a decisive breakthrough with the presentation of the “Windsor Framework”.
“I am pleased to report that we have now made a decisive breakthrough, together we have changed the original protocol and are today announcing the new Windsor framework,” Sunak told a news conference.
He said the deal would ease trade between Britain and Northern Ireland, firmly root the province’s place in the United Kingdom and give lawmakers there a say in whether they must implement EU law, with London having a veto.
“I believe that today’s framework addresses them (Northern Ireland’s concerns) … I believe that what we have achieved today is a real breakthrough.”
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, described the deal as an historic one which opened a “new chapter” in relations with Britain, praising “dear Rishi’s” honesty in his dealings with the bloc.
‘RATIONALITY IS BACK’
The tone of their joint press conference in Windsor, close to the monarch’s castle, was a world away from the icy readouts posted on Twitter after talks were held with officials in the Johnson and Truss administrations.
Then both former leaders had threatened to rip up the Northern Ireland protocol with legislation in parliament and their administrations had regularly criticised the EU for being overly legalistic and inflexible.
Sunak, since becoming prime minister in October, has instead moved to repair ties with the bloc, spurred on by the closer cooperation between London and Brussels over the Ukraine conflict.
Pressing pause on the Northern Ireland Protocol bill which would all but rip up the earlier agreement, he saw solving the Northern Ireland standoff as a concrete “win” for his administration which has struggled to establish itself.
An official who worked in Downing Street said several prime ministers had put the protocol in “the possible wins category”, something concrete a leader could do if they found themselves under fire – and Sunak has found himself under pressure over everything from strikes to tackling illegal immigration.
Britain’s opposition Labour Party is way ahead in the opinion polls and several lawmakers say they are now focusing on local issues to seize any chance of retaining their seat in a national election expected next year.
He won immediate praise from Brussels.
“Rationality is back,” Bernd Lange, head of the trade committee in the European Parliament, said on Twitter. “Much appreciated Realpolitik of Sunak instead of the showmanship & tactical games of the past.”
OPPOSITION AT HOME?
But Sunak still has to win over not only some of his lawmakers in the ERG, but more importantly the DUP. One insider said the unionists fear they are seeing a repeat of 2017 when they had to mount opposition against a deal they did not like.
Then former prime minister Theresa May was pressing on with negotiations with the EU when she was forced to pause discussions to take a call from then DUP leader Arlene Foster, who said her party could not support May’s plan.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, speaking before news of an agreement emerged, said they would take time to look at the details before deciding whether to accept it. The ERG has also said they would study the details.
Sunak has been speaking to the DUP, and also the ERG who say they will follow what the unionist party decides, but some have felt they have been cut out of the talks only to be asked for their opinions at the very end of the process.
“I’m not opposed to him,” said one Conservative Brexit-supporter. “I simply want him to do the right thing.”
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Kate Holton and Angus MacSwan)
FACTBOX-Britain’s new Brexit trade deal – what has been agreed?
LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Britain and the European Union announced a new deal for post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland on Monday in a bid to end a row that has overshadowed their ties since Brexit.
The deal seeks to resolve the tensions caused by the Northern Ireland protocol, a complex agreement which set the trading rules for the British-ruled region that London agreed before it left the EU but now says are unworkable.
Below are the key parts of the new framework outlined by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a news conference:
CUSTOMS
When Britain left the EU, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to a deal that effectively left Northern Ireland in the bloc’s single market for goods because of its open border with EU member Ireland, creating a customs border with mainland Britain.
The British government has wanted to reduce the number of checks on goods travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland.
The two sides have agreed to separate goods just going to Northern Ireland and those which will continue into the EU into “green” and “red” lanes.
This is designed to reduce the paperwork facing companies that have said they were unable to provide a full range of products to Northern Ireland because the number of checks were too onerous.
“It means food retailers like supermarkets, restaurants and wholesalers will no longer need hundreds of certificates for every lorry,” Sunak said. “And we will end the situation where food made to UK rules could not be sent to and sold in Northern Ireland.”
EU LAWS
Under the earlier deal agreed with the EU, Northern Ireland followed some of the bloc’s laws so that goods flow freely over the border with Ireland without checks.
Sunak said the Northern Ireland Assembly will now be able to “pull an emergency brake” on any changes to EU rules and the UK government will “have a veto”.
Von der Leyen said said Britain and the EU would consult each other extensively when introducing new laws and regulatory changes in an effort to reduce the need for using the brake.
But in comments that may contradict that statement, von der Leyen said that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will remain the ultimate arbiter of whether Northern Ireland is following single market rules.
“The ECJ will have the final say on EU law and single market issues,” she said.
VALUE ADDED TAX
Businesses in Northern Ireland currently follow EU rules on value-added tax (VAT). This means tax breaks by British government payments to help firms in Northern Ireland must be compliant with rules set by the EU.
Under the new deal, the British government will have freedom to set VAT in the province.
“We’ve amended the legal text of the Protocol to ensure we can make critical VAT and excise changes for the whole of the UK for example on alcohol duty, meaning our reforms to cut the cost of a pint in the pub will now apply in Northern Ireland,” he said.
HORIZON
Under a trade agreement signed at the end of 2020, Britain negotiated access to a range of science and innovation programmes including Horizon, a 95.5 billion euro programme that offers grants and projects to researchers.
But 18 months on, Britain says the EU has yet to finalise access to Horizon, Copernicus, the earth observation programme on climate change, Euratom, the nuclear research programme, and to services such as Space Surveillance and Tracking.
Von der leyen said once the new deal is implemented work would begin on restarting Britain’s cooperation with Horizon.
“This is good news for all those who are working in research and science,” she said.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; editing by Michael Holden and Angus MacSwan)
