The EU and London reach a first agreement to unblock Brexit after the rise of Sunak

The rise to power of the pragmatist Rishi Sunak has radically improved relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom after the turbulent years of Boris Johnson and the ephemeral mandate of Liz Truss. In contrast to the climate of open warfare last summer, Brussels and London announced on Monday a first agreement to unblock one of the thorniest Brexit disputes: the border in Northern Ireland.

The agreement has been announced after a high level meeting in London between the British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverleyand the vice-president of the European Commission responsible for Brexit, Maros Sefcovicwhich both parties describe as “friendly and constructive”.

The agreement reached this Monday does not solve all the problems of the Northern Ireland protocol, but it does suppose “a fundamental prerequisite to generate confidence” and a “new basis” for EU-UK dialogueindicates the joint communiqué made public at the end of the meeting.

[Bruselas lanza un arsenal de acciones legales contra Londres por saltarse el acuerdo del Brexit]

Specifically, London will allow Brussels to access the British database that makes real-time tracking of goods transit between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. A measure that the EU had been demanding for more than a year in order to verify that there is no illegal entry of British products into the single market across the border with Ireland.

“While a number of critical issues need to be resolved in order to move forward, agreement has been reached today on the specific issue of EU access to UK information systems”reads the joint statement.

From now on, the EU and UK technical teams will “work quickly” to look for possible solutions in the rest of the pending problems of the protocol of Northern Ireland on the basis of this initial agreement. Sefcovic and Cleverly will meet again on January 16 to take stock of the progress made.

The new climate of understanding between Brussels and London after Rishi Sunak came to power contrasts with the relentless dispute that took place in the final weeks of Boris Johnson’s government. Last June, the Community Executive launched an arsenal of legal actions against the United Kingdom for unilaterally skipping the Brexit agreement.

With the active collaboration of Truss, who was Foreign Secretary at the time, Johnson passed a bill whose goal was to unilaterally amend the Northern Ireland protocol, suppressing customs controls and ending the protection of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). An initiative that angered the Europeans. With this Monday’s agreement, Sunak makes it clear that he prefers a more conciliatory negotiating tactic with the EU.

The origin of the problem lies in the type of hard Brexit chosen by Boris Johnson, which has meant the United Kingdom’s exit from both the customs union and the single market. To avoid a physical border on the island of Ireland (which would jeopardize the Good Friday Peace Agreement), the British Prime Minister approved a special status for Northern Irelandwhich is still linked to the rules of the internal market of the EU.

That means, in practice, the border has been moved to the Irish Sea, with new customs and phytosanitary controls on products arriving at the ports of Northern Ireland from the island of Great Britain. The new border has particularly infuriated Northern Irish unionists, who denounce that it endangers the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom.

“The EU and the UK share the commitment to protect the Good Friday Agreement in all its partswhile preserving the integrity of both the EU single market and the UK internal market,” underlines the statement published after the meeting between Sefcovic and Cleverly.