The former EU negotiator for the agreement on the UK’s orderly withdrawal from the EU and post-Brexit bilateral relations, Michel Barnier, welcomed, on Tuesday 28 February, the agreement reached the previous day between UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the new ‘Windsor Framework’, the arrangement that replaces the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and includes new adjustments (see EUROPE 13130/2).
The former negotiator welcomed a “new chapter” in relations between the two countries. “This goes to show how much you gain by trust in European relations rather than the zero-sum game of past governments”, he commented on Twitter.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also welcomed the agreement. “Northern Ireland will benefit from the opportunities, certainty and stability brought about by this agreement”, he commented, also via Twitter.
The ambassadors of the Member States to the EU (Coreper), for their part, had expressed cautious satisfaction the same evening, in the wake of the announcement of the agreement. For the EU27, this is “good news, as the UK was not applying the protocol in recent years” and the solutions found are “a priori reasonable and protect the essence/core of the protocol and, in particular, the way EU law applies with the Court of Justice of the EU remaining the final arbiter”, according to a diplomatic source.
However, this agreement remains an agreement in principle and several steps must now be completed. Mr Sunak was in Northern Ireland on Tuesday to defend it, as the ‘Windsor Framework’ is due to be passed by the UK Parliament. The hardline British Conservatives, notably those close to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, were due to hold a meeting on Tuesday evening 28 February to adopt their position.
It will also need to secure the endorsement of the Northern Ireland Unionist Party (DUP), whose leader Jeffrey Donaldson has nonetheless welcomed some progress in addressing the concerns that led the DUP to boycott the Stormont Assembly, the BBC reported.
The Commission, for its part, presented on 27 February legislative initiatives in the areas of sanitary and phytosanitary standards, medicines and tariff quotas to reflect the new agreement, which will be forwarded to the EU Council and the European Parliament for adoption.
In Northern Ireland, Rishi Sunak boasted in Belfast of a “great step forward” for the people of Northern Ireland, who will also enjoy a “unique” situation by being able to remain in the European Single Market, according to the BBC, with the Prime Minister presenting this specificity as an advantage.
In addition, the British leader again touted a veto power for the Northern Ireland authorities to refuse the application of EU law via the ‘Stormont Brake’, named after the Northern Ireland Assembly.
This mechanism will allow 30 members to ask the UK government to stop the application in Northern Ireland of provisions that modify or replace provisions of Union law linked to the Protocol under very specific conditions.
The EU will be able to challenge this decision, for example, through an arbitration system. And if disagreements persist, it can also take unilateral measures to remedy the difficulties.
For the rest, the Court of Justice of the EU will continue to have jurisdiction wherever EU law is applied.
And the principle that the Court remains the final arbiter of EU law disputes in Northern Ireland is “accepted” by the UK side, a source said on 28 February. There will not be “problems every day” between the two parties, the source added, recalling that there are other intermediary dispute resolution mechanisms, such as the joint committee. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)