European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced this Sunday in a joint statement that they will meet in London this Monday, anticipating both announcing an imminent agreement on the issue , which has rendered relations between the UK and the Community institutions most complicated over the past two years: the Northern Ireland Protocol. “Today the EC President and UK Prime Minister agreed to continue working face-to-face to reach common agreement and practical solutions to a host of complex challenges surrounding the Ireland Protocol and Northern Ireland,” he announced the text. Sunak is poised to face a possible internal rebellion within his party, which former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has begun to foment.
One of the Conservative Party’s smartest and most maneuverable Eurosceptics told this newspaper last Monday in one of the British Parliament’s function rooms on the banks of the Thames that Rishi Sunak continues to act in politics like the young manager who hailed from a start-up in California. “He’s an excellent human being, but if you’re going to swim among sharks, you should show your fin,” he warned. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has decided to show his fin and even a large part of his teeth. Through a series of interventions in the media most widely read by the Tories – the Sunday Times and in particular the Sunday Telegraph – Sunak, who, unlike previous politicians in his position, has defended the EU exit process from the start, has defended the hard-line rebels warned his party that it is time to bring order to Northern Ireland with a new pact with Brussels to end the region’s post-Brexit lockdown.
Faced with opposition from his party’s hard wing, led by Johnson, and Northern Ireland’s most recalcitrant unionists, Sunak intends to press ahead with the deal with Brussels after two years of tensions over Ireland’s protocol, which involves customs and health controls on products shipped to Northern Ireland be introduced. “As someone who believes in Brexit, who voted for Brexit and campaigned for Brexit, I want to show that Brexit works and that it works for all British territories,” he told the Times in an interview.
Everything to do with this issue has poisoned British politics for decades. It remains to be seen whether a politician like Sunak, unknown to the public three years ago and partially posted to Downing Street by a series of coincidences and misfortunes, will have the ability, courage or luck to deal successfully with the same problem cost him Go to former Prime Minister Theresa May. Boris Johnson was able to sacrifice the interests of unions in Northern Ireland, a traditional ally of the Conservative Party, and keep that region within the single market and under the rules of the EU – something May said no prime minister would dare do – in exchange for carrying out his long-awaited Brexit.
And again, Johnson, eager to return to the political front, has chosen to lead the revolt against Sunak from the shadows. Furious at a prime minister he promoted and who later played a key role in his ousting, he now accuses his successor – barring the short and disastrous tenure of Liz Truss in between – of laying down arms and surrendering to the EU. Johnson’s government began the process of legislation giving ministers the prerogative to unilaterally breach the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Brussels understood this maneuver as a declaration of war.
Although the text never came into force, there was a constant threat that Downing Street was ready to break international law if the EU didn’t give in to pressure to change fundamental parts of the protocol. “That was a good law. It solves all problems,” Johnson defended this week, playing the double game of showing his support for the government while continuing to indicate his willingness to lead the rebellion. “It was an excellent piece of legislation which has created no new problems for the economy of the whole of Ireland. I would keep the text,” the former Prime Minister warned on Sky News.
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But Sunak, whose lack of political temperament he makes up for with a dose of rationality, has this weekend taken a stand for both Johnson and Truss, who drafted the law as foreign secretary and pushed it as prime minister. “My predecessors rightly presented this law as a last resort. But like them, I’ve always said that it’s a negotiated solution [con Bruselas] would always be a better result. My job is to seize this opportunity, face difficult choices and give everything I have,” the Prime Minister assured the Sunday Telegraph in a forum. Accompanied by a warning in her interview with the Sunday Times: “We must all recognize that this is not about me or about anyone else. It’s something that affects the communities that make up Northern Ireland. It’s about what’s best for them. That should be a priority for all of us,” Sunak said.
Final spurt?
After a week in which everything seemed to cool down again, Downing Street has stepped on the gas again. Details of the outlined deal with Brussels are not known, but most of the changes leaked to the British media appear to meet much of the DUP’s demands. Its leadership has blocked Northern Ireland’s autonomous institutions – parliament and government – for nearly a decade waiting for the changes to the protocol needed to be made. Faster routes free of customs checks for goods traveling from the UK to Northern Ireland; Control of VAT and other taxes by London; British non-EU quality standards for locally manufactured products; opportunity for Stormont Parliament to be involved in any new EU legislation affecting Northern Ireland; and reducing the role of the European Court of Justice as the ultimate guarantor of compliance with the rules of the single market to which the UK region belongs through the Protocol.
“We’re not stupid. We want EU laws to be completely removed from Northern Ireland and for Northern Ireland to be treated the same as England, Scotland or Wales,” warned Mark Francois, the head of the European Research Group, the conservative insider among Eurosceptics who once sank May and rose Johnson. The number of their support fluctuates constantly – from 30 to 100 MPs – but they retain their menacing power.
As announced by Downing Street this weekend, the final agreement could reach the cabinet table (the meeting of government officials) this Monday. Sunak has promised to take the matter to Parliament, although he is under no obligation to put the deal to a vote with Brussels. In theory, it is not a new treaty or an amendment to the existing one, but a set of agreements designed to make the protocol’s application more flexible. The Conservative MPs have received an order to be available from early Monday morning. But the prime minister is aware that the more he opens the doors of debate in the House of Commons, the thicker the swamp he could be caught in. The Labor opposition, aware of Sunak’s apparent weakness, have offered their votes to push through the deal. Politically, however, it would be an irreversible mistake to cling to the help of the opposing faction to get your way. This could be the week when the most random prime minister in recent British history reveals if he’s learned to swim with sharks.
The fiasco of the “Windsor Agreement” and the visit of Von der Leyen
Downing Street’s acceleration towards a deal with Brussels to resolve issues arising from the Northern Ireland Protocol also had some bizarre episodes this weekend. The final stage was to coincide with the visit of the President of the European Commission to London this Saturday. There were plans for Ursula von der Leyen to meet Charles III. at Windsor Palace before jointly announcing the Northern Ireland pact she has made with Rishi Sunak, the BBC has confirmed. Some media pointed out that the government was considering christening it the “Windsor Agreement”.
The hard wing of the Conservative Party immediately jumped on the information, accusing Sunak of endangering the monarch’s due neutrality in a move “that borders on the constitutionally correct”, according to ex-minister and historic eurosceptic, Jacob Rees- mogg
“It would be completely wrong to suggest that the King was involved in any remote political maneuvering,” a Downing Street spokesman told PA Media hours after the riot. The Sunak government also announced that von der Leyen’s visit had been canceled for “operational reasons”, but the President of the EU Commission would finally travel to London this Monday.
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