BRUSSELS: Ireland’s foreign minister questioned Monday the British government’s claim that implementing a post-Brexit trade deal would make restoring power-sharing in Northern Ireland more difficult.
On Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson travelled to Belfast to meet with Northern Irish party leaders, urging them to establish a new government nearly two weeks after the province’s elections.
The DUP, Northern Ireland’s largest pro-British unionist party, has refused to resume power-sharing talks with Sinn Fein, the pro-Irish party, citing a need to alter post-Brexit trade laws.
Johnson has urged them to return to the province’s government, while also showing sympathy for the concept of scrapping or revising the “Northern Ireland protocol,” an EU-UK agreement.
However, Ireland’s minister for defence and foreign affairs, Simon Coveney, denied the notion that the convention was preventing the Belfast executive from resuming its work.
Coveney told reporters after visiting EU Vice President Maros Sefcovic in Brussels, “No, I don’t buy that at all.” “This is a global agreement.” It’s a matter of international law.”
“This was a pact drafted and negotiated by the British government, including this prime minister and his team, as well as the EU.”
[embedpost slug=”no-blanket-amnesty-for-n-ireland-crimes-uk-pm/”]
Unless the EU agrees to large-scale revisions, Johnson’s government has threatened to invoke a suspension mechanism in the deal or legislation to remove its terms from UK law.
However, Brussels and Dublin believe that the protocol, which governs commerce between the UK, which is now outside the EU, and Northern Ireland, which is a UK province but part of the EU single market, must remain in place.
They warn that if Johnson unilaterally withdraws or circumvents the protocol, the entire post-Brexit trade arrangement between the 27 EU nations and the United Kingdom will be jeopardised.
“I think the British government understands only too well what the EU will be required to do,” Coveney said, hinting that if Johnson rips up the deal, the UK will forfeit EU trading advantages.
Coveney acknowledged that in Northern Ireland’s pro-British unionist population, “there are legitimate fears and worry surrounding the protocol.”
“We won’t be able to please everyone,” he continued, “but I believe we can take a substantial stride forward if we compromise.”
“Another option is for the British government to go it alone, forcing the EU to respond to a treaty breach.”
