Great Britain has announced that it will largely end the trade controls on the border with Northern Ireland agreed in the wake of Brexit. This is intended to resolve the political crisis in Belfast. The EU announced an examination.
Great Britain wants to largely end the controls on trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom introduced after Brexit. As the British government announced, routine checks will no longer be carried out and the vast majority of goods will no longer be checked.
A corresponding change in the law is to be adopted by the House of Commons in London today.
Step aimed at solving political crisis in Northern Ireland
The approach is the basis for the end of the political crisis in Northern Ireland. The main Protestant party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), had made an end to internal British customs controls a condition. The DUP advocates political union with Great Britain and now wants to return to the regional government in Belfast after two years of boycott.
The contractually agreed regulation stipulates that the DUP must govern together with the strongest Catholic force, Sinn Fein, which is seeking unification with Ireland. DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said all controls between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom would no longer apply. The Times newspaper, however, wrote that the agreement between the British government and the DUP was primarily symbolic.
EU announces close examination
The EU Commission, which had agreed the previous regulation after a long dispute with Great Britain, announced that it would closely examine the changes. These concern the so-called Windsor Agreement, which London and Brussels reached around a year ago to facilitate trade with Northern Ireland.
The current customs border in the Irish Sea is intended to avoid a “hard border” between the former civil war region of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland after Brexit. However, this also caused difficulties, for example when sending parcels, medication and bringing pets from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. British loyalists feared that the controls would endanger the union with Great Britain.