British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed “a new chapter” between London and the European Union on Monday with the conclusion of an agreement on post-Brexit arrangements. for Northern Ireland.
After months of tension and difficult negotiations, the two leaders announced the engagement at a news conference in Windsor, on the west London outskirts.
“We are allies”
“It’s the start of a new chapter in our relationship,” he continued, hailing “a decisive step forward.”
Signed in 2020, the Northern Ireland Protocol regulates the movement of goods between the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland, which has the only land border with the European Union.
This protocol wanted to avoid a land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland that could weaken the peace concluded in 1998 after three bloody decades, while protecting the single European market.
Reduction of customs controls
In particular, the Windsor agreement will significantly reduce the customs checks required for goods from Great Britain arriving in Northern Ireland. It will also reduce the application of community regulations in the British province.
“We have agreed on strong guarantees (…) that will protect the integrity of the single European market,” insisted Ursula von der Leyen. “And most importantly, it protects the hard-won peace through the Good Friday Agreement” that ended the conflict between mostly Protestant unionists and mostly Catholic Republicans and whose 25th anniversary will be celebrated in April, she added.
Source: BFM TV
