Four months after his election to the Conservative leadership and assuming the premiership, Mr. Rishi Sunak he is credited with his first significant, though not definitive, success: the “Windsor Accord” with the EU. on the basis of which his most important expectation was removed Brexitregarding its commercial status Northern Ireland.

The agreement announced on Monday by the British Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyenreduces restrictions and controls on trade between the rest of Britain and Northern Ireland, while at the same time increasing the power of the local parliament over applicable rules and regulations, compared to the famous “Northern Ireland Protocol”, which provoked a fierce backlash from Brexit hardliners and unionists in Northern Ireland.

In particular, goods entering from the rest of the United Kingdom into Northern Ireland for consumption in its territory will move along the “green lane”, that is, they will not pass customs control. Those bound for independent Ireland will travel on a “red lane”, meaning they will be subject to controls to secure the single European market, to which independent Ireland belongs, but not the North. However, the parties agreed that customs checks would be minimized through the use of digital technologies.

President Biden is satisfied as DUP unionists and Brexit hardliners ponder their response.

In addition, the agreement provides that the local parliament of Northern Ireland will be able to veto the implementation of new rules that will be adopted by the EU in the future. and they will not find the local authorities agreeing. All of this is a significant improvement on the Northern Ireland Protocol, which then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson adopted in 2020 when his country left the EU, but then tried to repeal it. In other words, Rishi Sunak managed to achieve from the Europeans what neither Johnson nor his successor Liz Truss managed to achieve.

In the House of Commons, the Windsor Agreement has received wide support, but in Northern Ireland the situation is still unclear, because the largest party in the region, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), is unwilling to study the text in detail. Rishi Sunak was in Belfast yesterday trying to convince Unionists who feared that any difference in the region’s trading status from the rest of the UK would move it closer to being swallowed up by an independent Ireland.

US President Joe Biden (Irish by birth) expressed his satisfaction with Sunak-von der Leyen’s agreement, stressing that it is a “necessary step” to ensure the peace provided for by the Good Friday Agreement. This peace agreement, dated April 10, 1998, ended the long-standing conflict between unionists and nationalists and paved the way for the joint administration of the region by DUPD I and Sinn Féin II. Reports from Washington say that Joe Biden plans to visit London and Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement next month.

Charles’ involvement

Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen ended their engagement at a hotel in Windsor, West London – hence the name of the deal. However, some of Northern Ireland’s most staunch Unionists were outraged that Windsor was home to a famous royal castle and “Windsor House” was the name of the royal family. Sunak’s critics accused him of thus involving King Charles, who, by virtue of his position, must be strictly neutral in political matters. Worse, for the skeptical Protestants of Northern Ireland, Charles himself opened the castle gates to greet and offer von der Leyen tea shortly after the deal with Sunak was announced. The Guardian reports that Boris Johnson, who had not made a public statement until last night, advised the DUP leadership to be “very cautious” and not rush through the Windsor Agreement.