Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen will meet in the UK in the early afternoon on Monday for final talks ahead of an expected announcement of a post-Brexit settlement for Northern Ireland.
(Bloomberg) —
Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen will meet in the UK in the early afternoon on Monday for final talks ahead of an expected announcement of a post-Brexit settlement for Northern Ireland.
The meeting between the British prime minister and European Commission president in Berkshire, where King Charles III’s Windsor Castle is situated, suggests the UK and the European Union are finally ready to settle their differences after a stand-off that’s poisoned relations since Britain’s departure from the bloc’s single market and customs union in 2021.
A deal would be a triumph for Sunak, who has sought to dial down tensions with the EU since taking power in October. But there could still be peril ahead for the premier, who was unable to convince unionists in Northern Ireland and Brexiteers in his own ruling Conservative Party to endorse an agreement last week.
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If a deal is reached, Sunak is expected to brief his Cabinet in the afternoon, alongside presentations from Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris, who have both been involved in talks. The premier will hold a news conference later in the afternoon before making a statement to Parliament. Both the Conservatives and main opposition Labour Party have instructed their MPs to attend Westminster.
EU Brexit chief Maros Sefcovic will brief member states on Monday on the state of play, according to a person familiar with the plans.
When asked about reports that von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, had been expected to travel to Britain on Saturday, and was to meet the King at Windsor Castle, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab downplayed the significance, telling Sky News on Sunday, “The king, the monarch, regularly meets heads of states and heads of leading international organizations.”
The Mail on Sunday reported anger from Conservative MPs that Sunak was trying to involve the head of state in his Brexit plans.
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Finalizing Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements has been a hangover from the withdrawal agreement that the UK and the EU agreed in 2019, when Boris Johnson was Britain’s prime minister. Britain left the bloc at the end of January 2020, but continued to conform to EU rules until the end of that year.
But under the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, the portion of the Brexit deal negotiated by Johnson that governs the region’s unique place in both the UK and EU’s trading markets, that region remained in the single market and a de facto customs border was put in the Irish Sea, snarling trade within the UK.
The new deal seeks to soften those trade and regulatory barriers with a solution centering around “green” and “red” customs lanes for goods flowing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and onwards to the EU respectively. That would end onerous checks and paperwork on goods traveling within the UK.
Sunak had been preparing to unveil a new deal last week, but vocal opposition from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party and some pro-Brexit Tory MPs scuppered the plan.
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The DUP has refused to engage in the devolved power-sharing government at Stormont in protest against the protocol, which it complains treats Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the country. Sunak will be hoping his deal meets the DUP’s so-called seven tests to restore power-sharing in the province.
Sunak told the Sunday Times he was “giving it everything” to try to strike a deal with the EU on the Northern Ireland protocol, saying he does not believe what he has negotiated would leave Northern Ireland in the “orbit” of Brussels. But while the agreement is expected to reduce the influence of the European Court of Justice in Northern Ireland, it would also keep it as the ultimate arbiter of disputes about EU law.
That’s something that some Brexiteers aren’t prepared to countenance.
“We can’t tolerate a continuation of Northern Ireland being subject to the full panoply of single market rules,” Tory backbencher Theresa Villiers — a former Northern Ireland secretary — told BBC radio on Monday. “There’s going to be significant divergence in the future and that makes it even more important for us to address this problem that we must enable people in Northern Ireland to have a say over the laws that govern them.”
Mark Francois, leader of the European Research Group of pro-Brexit Tory MPs, said cutting the influence of the European court was not enough, telling Sky News on Sunday the DUP could not accept a Brexit deal where EU law was superior to UK law in Northern Ireland.
“Unless that legal text when we see it expunges EU law from Northern Ireland it’s very unlikely that the DUP will support it , less of a role is not enough,” Francois said. “We have to get rid of EU law in Northern Ireland.” He also warned Sunak not to try to “bludgeon” his deal through Parliament without a vote.
A spokesman for the DUP declined to comment.
(Updates with comment from former Northern Ireland secretary in 15th paragraph. An earlier version of this story was corrected to say King Charles III in second paragraph.)
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