Northern Ireland Protocol
In protest against the Brexit rules: Northern Ireland’s head of government resigns, according to media reports
After only six months in office: Paul Givan, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, resigns.
©David Young/PA Wire/DPA
Since Brexit, fears of a renewed conflict in Ireland have been high. The dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol is now claiming its first victim: Paul Givan is resigning as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
According to the media, the head of government of the British province wants to resign in protest against the agreed Brexit rules for Northern Ireland. Paul Givan of the Protestant Unionist DUP party wants to step down on Thursday, the BBC, the newspaper “Belfast Telegraph” and the PA news agency reported unanimously. That would mean that Vice Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill, who has equal rights, would also have to resign from the Catholic-Republican Sinn Fein party. The fragile unity government of the DUP and Sinn Fein would be as good as over with just a few months before the regional elections.
The dispute over the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, which the British government had negotiated with the EU in the wake of Brexit, escalated on Wednesday evening. Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots of the DUP single-handedly announced that he would stop the customs controls on British imports agreed with the EU. The British government backed the move. The EU Commission, Sinn Fein and neighboring EU member Ireland, however, have sharply criticized the announcement as illegal.
Fear of renewed conflict in Ireland
Prime Minister Givan only took office in June after a fierce power struggle within the DUP. Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson has been threatening for months to withdraw his ministers from the unity government in protest at the Northern Ireland protocol.
The document stipulates that the British province will continue to follow the rules of the EU internal market and customs union. This avoids a hard border with Ireland, which would lead to new tensions in the former civil war zone. However, this created an intra-British customs border. The British government, which negotiated the protocol itself, and the DUP therefore want to overturn the regulation.