Britain and the European Union have struck a customs deal that could pave the way for an end to conflicts over Northern Ireland after Brexit, The Times reported on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The EU has agreed to a plan that will avoid the need for regular checks on products imported into Northern Ireland, and the European Court of Justice can only rule on cases in Northern Ireland if the case is referred by the courts there. The Times.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said a few days ago that it was not yet clear whether the UK and the European Union could reach a deal on changing trade rules for Northern Ireland after Brexit by the anniversary of the 1998 peace accord in mid-April. region.

The British province of Northern Ireland is in a political impasse. At the heart of the disagreement is the Protocol on Northern Ireland, which was agreed upon when the United Kingdom left the European Union.

Northern Ireland has the UK’s only land border with the EU, but it must remain open under the 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of violence.

The protocol keeps Northern Ireland within the EU’s single market, but effectively creates a customs border with the British island, which is unacceptable to Northern Irish unionists who see the deal as a threat to the province’s place in the UK.

“There cannot be a hard border on the island of Ireland,” Ursula von der Leyen said in December 2022 in Dublin, when she expressed confidence that negotiations with the British government on trade deals in Northern Ireland after Brexit would succeed.

According to her, “Brexit will not be an obstacle to reconciliation in Ireland”, which is torn by a bloody conflict between nationalists who favor reunification and those loyal to the British crown.

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