Withdrawal Agreement and Protocol

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  The Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, commonly abbreviated as the Northern Ireland Protocol, is a protocol to the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement that regulates single customs and immigration issues at the border on the island of Ireland between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the European Union, as well as certain aspects of trade in goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. [1] Its terms were negotiated in 2019 and agreed and finalised in December 2020. Due to thirty years of internal conflict in Northern Ireland, the British-Irish border has had a special status since that conflict ended with the Belfast Agreement/Good Friday Agreement of 1998. In the context of the peace process in Northern Ireland, the border was largely invisible, with no physical barriers or customs controls at the many border crossing points; This arrangement was made possible by the joint accession of the two countries to both the EU`s single market and customs union, as well as their common travel area. The Northern Ireland Protocol, negotiated last October by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is part of the Withdrawal Agreement (which some have referred to as a “divorce agreement”) in which the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. In September 2021, the new head of the DUP, Sir Jeffery Donaldson, stated that DUP ministers would no longer participate in North-South Councils of Ministers with Irish government ministers, that they would not apply measures in their departments to carry out border controls in the Irish Sea and, unless a long-term solution is found to remove the Irish maritime border, the DUP would leave the Northern Ireland executive, which, in turn, would bring down the entire government. [37] Later this month, the more moderate Ulster Unionist Party[38] presented compromise proposals to amend the protocol to better protect Northern Ireland`s place in the UK single market. This would include a new criminal offence of knowingly exporting goods destined for the UK single market to the EU single market. The proposal was immediately rejected by the DUP and the TÜV. [39] At the end of the month, the four unionist parties (DUP, PUP, TÜV and UUP) issued a joint statement reaffirming their “opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol, its mechanisms and structures” and reaffirming their “immutable position that the Protocol must be rejected and replaced by agreements that fully respect Northern Ireland`s position as a constituent and integral part of the United Kingdom.” However, the parties refused to conclude an electoral pact that could maximize the number of anti-protocol MPs voting on maintaining the protocol under Article 18. [40] Instead of being an alternative position, as envisaged by the backstop, the Protocol sets out the provisions for Northern Ireland for at least the first four years from January 2021.

  [22] Its status thereafter depends on maintaining democratic support in Northern Ireland to maintain Articles 5 to 10. Article 18 states that this decision shall be taken by a simple majority of the members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The protocol is due to enter into force on 1 January 2021, the first day of the new relationship between the EU and the UK. The UK Government, through the joint committee structures, has requested a two-year extension of these controls and has stated that it expects serious food supply difficulties in Northern Ireland. The whole of the UK would leave the EU customs union as a single customs territory, with Northern Ireland included in all future UK trade agreements, but Northern Ireland would adopt EU single market rules on goods, thus remaining a point of entry into the EU customs union. [23] This would prevent a “hard border” on the island of Ireland. Article 2 of the Protocol contains certain measures to protect human rights and equality, and specific EU measures against discrimination are listed in Annex 1. In a letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk, Johnson said the backstop was “undemocratic” and “does not give the people of Northern Ireland any influence over the legislation that applies to them”.

  On 2 October, the government published new proposals for an Irish protocol that included a vote on the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive. Although the proposals were not fully adopted by the EU after further negotiations, another version of the northern Ireland institutions` approval mechanism was included in the final withdrawal agreement. In a poll commissioned by the Belfast Telegraph, which took place between the 14th and 17th centuries. In May 2021, 59% of respondents were concerned about the prospect of protocol-related violence in the summer of 2021. [58] The Northern Ireland Protocol replaces the previous plan known as the Irish backstop, negotiated by former British Prime Minister Theresa May. On 4 October 2021, the UK government issued a veiled threat to abandon the Northern Ireland Protocol, warning that it “cannot wait forever” for the EU to respond to its calls for an overhaul of the protocol. .

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