British Foreign Minister James Cleverly is due to meet local politicians in Northern Ireland on Wednesday January 11 to try to get the British province out of the political impasse linked to post-Brexit provisions.
Accompanied by the minister responsible for the British province in the government of Rishi Sunak, Chris Heaton-Harris, James Cleverly must both discuss the problems created by the Northern Irish protocol which introduces controls on goods from Great Britain , and London’s desire to resolve the local political deadlock. The province’s institutions have been boycotted for almost a year by the unionists of the ultra-conservative DUP party, who see the protocol as a threat to Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom and are calling for it to be abandoned or at least profound changes.
A “new positive momentum”
London has threatened to call local elections for lack of an exit from the current paralysis by January 19, even if the government can in theory postpone this deadline. ‘I listen to the concerns of people and businesses in Northern Ireland and am fully aware that the current situation is not working’James Cleverly said in a statement, stressing the need to address these issues that are undermining “the place of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom”. Designed both to protect the single European market while avoiding the return of a hard border which could weaken the peace concluded in 1998 after three decades of violence (3,500 dead), the Northern Irish protocol creates a de facto customs border within the UK.
Following talks in London, James Cleverly and European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic announced progress on Monday “on the specific issue of EU access to IT systems” British, seeming to suggest a desire to make progress on concrete issues after months of stalemate. An advance called “critical prerequisite for building trust” in a joint statement. A new point is scheduled for January 16. In Brussels on Tuesday, the head of Irish diplomacy Michael Martin welcomed a “new positive impetus” in discussions to resolve this dispute.