The European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom have reached an agreement on the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol, information on Monday from British government sources. This agreement culminates the negotiations held today between the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, in the town of Windsor (east London), according to an official source. from the UK Executive to British media.
The two leaders are scheduled to hold a joint press conference at 15:30 GMT to formalize the deal, which will culminate several years of negotiations and should pave the way for the future post-Brexit relationship between the EU and the UK. Subsequently, Von der Leyen will be received at the nearby Windsor Castle by King Charles III, Buckingham Palace announced.
It is unknown if the pact will be voted in Parliament
At 18:30 GMT, after informing his cabinet of the terms of the agreement, Sunak will appear before the House of Commons (Lower) of the British Parliament, to offer details and face questions from deputies. It is still unknown if the pact will be put to a vote in Parliament, something that has been claimed by many parliamentarians from Sunak’s own Conservative Party.
After closing the negotiations with Von der Leyen, the prime minister faces the challenge of convincing the pro-Brexit wing of his party and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which have shown the main reluctance. The latest signs suggest that Sunak can count on the support of some of the most qualified voices of the Eurosceptic “Tories”, such as that of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Steve Baker, although other weights weights of the party, such as the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have yet to comment.
Under the current protocol, Northern Ireland falls within the internal community and British market, so controls on trade between the United Kingdom and the EU are carried out between the island of Great Britain and that of Ireland, which avoids raising a physical border between the two Irelands and does not allow prejudice to the peace agreement of Good Friday, 1998. of the United Kingdom.
One of the doubts lies in whether the DUP will agree to restore the Northern Irish regional government, paralyzed since last year, after the nationalist party on Good Friday.
