UK Agrees Deal With EU Over Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol
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27/02/2023UK Agrees Deal With EU Over Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol
The UK Government has sealed a deal with the EU to end the dispute over the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol.
At a joint press conference with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in Windsor, the prime minister said: “We have now made a decisive breakthrough. Together, we have changed the original protocol, and are today announcing the new Windsor framework,” he said.
He said the deal would help restore the previously strained relationship with the EU and go much further than previously thought to fix the “democratic deficit” by giving Stormont ministers a direct say in EU laws applying to Northern Ireland. “This is the beginning of a new chapter in a relationship,” he said.
He said the deal “fixes the problems” consumers face and helps guarantee the future of peace and stability.
The UK and the EU would deliver this through “three major steps” removing customs paperwork for consumers, guaranteeing medical supplies in the long term, and a new “Stormont brake” allowing assembly ministers a say on EU laws, allowing them to “stop them applying” in Northern Ireland.
The EU is understood to have made further compromises to deliver a deal that Von der Leyen believes will satisfy all communities, including the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), in a “new chapter” for all.
As a result of this deal, the UK government has confirmed that it will not be proceeding with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and the EU will not proceed with the seven separate legal actions it has launched against the UK.
