The British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, and Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President of the European Commission, signed the Windsor Framework Agreement in London this Friday, which governs the status of Northern Ireland after Brexit.
The agreement, sealed between the parties on 27 February, seeks to avoid problems arising from the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union by avoiding a physical border between the two Irelands.
Following the signing, the British Foreign Secretary and the Vice President of the EC underlined the “excellent” bilateral cooperation during these talks in a joint communique.
What has been achieved has protected the EU’s single market and the United Kingdom’s internal market as well as the Good Friday Agreement (1998), which ended violence in the province, adds the note.
“The United Kingdom and the European Union reaffirm their intention to use all available mechanisms in the (Windsor) Framework Agreement to jointly address and resolve any relevant future issues,” the note said.
London and Brussels adopted the deal to replace the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was introduced in 2019 by former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The British government believes that the framework agreement is the best treaty for the British province to secure its ties within the United Kingdom and protect the Good Friday Agreement.
Northern Ireland remains part of the EU’s single market for goods to avoid creating a physical border on the island of Ireland, which would violate the peace deal while remaining in Britain’s domestic market.
Following today’s signing, the British Parliament on Wednesday by a majority of 515 to 29 votes approved the so-called “Stormont break”, a clause in the text that gives the Northern Irish Assembly the power to object to future Community legislation that you oppose. Let’s agree. for your interests.
However, the province’s pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) voted against that mechanism, as did some Conservative MPs, including former British Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
The agreement has also been ratified by 27 member states of the European bloc.
The new Windsor Framework Agreement exempts British products destined for Northern Ireland from checks, although it maintains them for those going to the Republic of Ireland, which remains in the single Community market.
As with the previous protocol for Northern Ireland, controls of all products were built into the province’s ports, which created a boundary in the Irish Sea separating the island of Ireland from Great Britain, unacceptable to the DUP, which it sees as having an effect on its relationship with the rest of the UK.
