UK to introduce legislation to alter Northern Ireland Protocol, announces foreign secretary

LONDON

The UK government will introduce new legislation in the coming weeks to change parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced Tuesday.

Truss added that she is open to further talks with the EU and has invited Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice president.

She also said that the “proceeding with the bill is consistent with our obligations under international law.”

“This is not about scrapping the protocol,” she added.

The announcement came a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Northern Ireland for a round of talks with local political parties over the formation of the new power-sharing government in the wake of the May 5 elections along with protocol issues.

Truss said the government’s first priority is to uphold the 1998 Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, adding that this involves a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, enhanced north/south relations, and enhanced east-west cooperation.

She added that the UK government wants to see a power-sharing executive in place, but devolution is under strain as the protocol does not have the support of all communities in Northern Ireland.

All parties in Northern Ireland want to see some changes to it, she argued.

The Conservative Party government in London and its de facto partner the Democratic Unionist Party have argued that the protocol creates a sea border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain and therefore is not acceptable in its current form.

Reaction

The reaction from Sinn Fein was quick and scathing.

“The British government announces its intention to legislate to break the law,” Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein’s president, wrote on Twitter.

She wrote: “The stuff of a Rogue State. Meanwhile government and progress blocked in the North of Ireland.”

After a “tough” meeting with Johnson yesterday in Belfast, McDonald said that it is “very, very foolish” and “reckless” of the prime minister to “pursue again the threat of unilateral action, to break international law and create a full on collision with the European institutions.”

“The only thing that that brings is uncertainty and tension, and real difficulties for families, for communities and for the economy," she said.

Border

The border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic was one of the thorniest issues in years-long Brexit negotiations between the UK and EU.

The Brexit deal negotiated and signed by the Conservative government aligns Northern Ireland with the EU, avoiding a hard border for the time being.

Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU in a 2016 referendum.

The Troubles – an era of conflict between the British government and pro-British paramilitaries on one side and Irish Republicans and nationalists on the other – ended in 1998 when the Belfast Agreement put an end to decades of armed struggle in the divided UK region of Northern Ireland.

The UK and the Republic of Ireland signed the deal, brokered by the US and eight political parties in Northern Ireland, on April 10, 1998.

The deal, dubbed the Good Friday Agreement, largely saw the end of the Troubles-era violence, in which 3,500 people lost their lives.