Northern Ireland Protocol
[4][5][6] Principally to address concerns of Ulster Unionists about the Protocol, in 2022-23 the EU and UK agreed revised arrangements for its operation – the Windsor Framework – which took effect on 24 March 2023.
[1] The Democratic Unionist Party declined to accept the Framework as meeting their concerns until further adjustments to its operation were agreed on 31 January 2024 and the formation of a new Northern Ireland Executive began.
The Northern Ireland Protocol is intended to protect the EU single market, while avoiding imposition of a 'hard border' that might incite a recurrence of conflict and destabilise the relative peace that has held since the end of the Troubles.
The "backstop" (also formally called the Northern Ireland Protocol) was an appendix to a draft Brexit withdrawal agreement developed by the May government and the European Commission in December 2017 and finalised in November 2018.
[26] On 2 October, Johnson presented a potential replacement for the 2018 Irish backstop, proposing that Northern Ireland stay aligned with the EU on product standards but remain in the UK customs territory.
Article 3 recognises the right of the United Kingdom and Ireland to continue the Common Travel Area, their bilateral agreement on free movement of British and Irish citizens between their jurisdictions.
"The Joint Committee shall keep the application of this paragraph under constant review and shall adopt appropriate recommendations with a view to avoiding controls at the ports and airports of Northern Ireland to the extent possible."
Article 7 states that it is UK law that applies to goods offered for sale in Northern Ireland, except in respect of veterinary certificates or official labels for plant reproductive material.
Article 12 affirms that the UK is "responsible for implementing and applying the provisions of Union law made applicable by this Protocol to and in the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland" and that EU representatives have the right to be present when it does so.
Article 16 states that "if the application of this Protocol leads to serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist, or to diversion of trade, the Union or the United Kingdom may unilaterally take appropriate safeguard measures.
In October 2020, the de facto border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland bore criticism from Lord Empey, the Ulster Unionist Party's chief negotiator during the Good Friday Agreement and former Stormont minister.
"[41] In February 2021, then DUP leader Arlene Foster objected to its implicit "red line down the Irish Sea", contrary to the Prime Minister Johnson's assurances.
[42] Anger over the protocol has contributed to rising tensions in the Unionist community which led to street violence in the loyalist Sandy Row district of Belfast on 2 April 2021.
[44] In January 2021, Northern Ireland-born former Labour MP and Brexit campaigner Kate Hoey criticised the British government for erecting a trade border "down the Irish Sea" – in other words, between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain.
[46] Alliance Party leader and Stormont Justice Minister Naomi Long said there was a need for "pragmatic solutions" to protocol matters rather than for "people to escalate this into a constitutional crisis".
[57] In October, the European Commission started an infringement procedure,[58] and in December the EU-UK Joint Committee reached an agreement on practical aspects[59] which allowed the UK Government to remove the controversial clauses before the bill became law.
[60] An opinion poll ('Testing the Temperature') commissioned by Queen's University Belfast and carried out 24–28 March 2021, asked if the Protocol is on balance ‘a good thing’ for Northern Ireland.
[74] However Sammy Wilson MP, a leading member of the party, said that the DUP would not participate in Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive unless and until the Bill is enacted and brought into force.
On 27 February 2023, following conclusion of negotiations on the Windsor Framework, the UK government announced its intent to halt Parliamentary progress on the Bill and allow it to lapse at the end of the current session.
[76] According to the UK's implementation plan (July 2020), a system for checks on goods crossing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will need three types of electronic paperwork, as detailed in an eleven-page document.
[80] Despite an instruction by the UK Environment Secretary (George Eustice),[79] DAERA Minister Edwin Poots (DUP) (who had taken over the portfolio from Gordon Lyons) continued to resist doing so.
[79] Northern Ireland's Chief Veterinary Officer told the committee meeting that only a quarter of the checks required on goods entering the single market were being carried out at the temporary posts.
[86] The agreement provided for a delay of three months (ending 31 March 2021) to allow retailers, wholesales and logistics operations time to adjust to the new arrangements for goods movements from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
The UK government asked through the Joint Committee structures for an extension of two years on these checks, claiming to anticipate severe difficulties with food supply in Northern Ireland.
[88] On 9 April 2021 Bloomberg claimed that the EU is set to postpone the threatened legal action against the United Kingdom as a result of tensions in Northern Ireland.
[89] The EU announced 27 July 2021 that it was pausing its legal action against the United Kingdom to "buy time and space to consider the changes to the protocol sought by the UK".
[96] In December 2022, the High Court declared unlawful the instructions by the then agriculture minister Edwin Poots (DUP) to stop construction of permanent border control posts in Northern Ireland.
[101] The main point of contention for the UK is the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) responsibility to adjudicate on disputes that arise from interpretation of EU law (where the protocol applies them to Northern Ireland).
[102] In a speech at the British Embassy in Lisbon on 12 October, in advance of publication of the commission's latest proposals, Frost declared his view that the Protocol was "not working", was "shredding the Good Friday Agreement", and was becoming "the biggest source of mistrust between us".
[107] On 18 December, Lord Frost announced his resignation as the UK's Brexit minister, citing a number of libertarian concerns over the Government's domestic policies.
