The Windsor Framework, agreed by Rishi Sunak and European Commission President this week, rebalances the Protocol, restores the consent of all communities and charts a new way forward for Northern Ireland.
The agreement delivers free-flowing trade in goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland by removing any sense of the border in the Irish Sea for goods staying within the UK. These goods will travel as normal through a new green lane without red tape or unnecessary checks, with the only checks remaining designed to prevent smuggling or crime.
It protects Northern Ireland’s place in our Union, replacing swathes of EU laws with UK laws and ensuring the people of Northern Ireland can benefit from the same tax policies, food and drink, medicines, and parcels as the rest of the UK.
It puts the people of Northern Ireland in charge with active democratic consent. The Agreement rewrites the Treaty text with a new Stormont Brake that means the UK can veto new EU goods laws if they are not supported by both communities in Northern Ireland, which goes far beyond previous agreements or discussions on the old Protocol.
In summary, the agreement achieves the above by:
- Delivering free flowing movement of goods between Northern Ireland and Great Britain and removing any sense of a border in the Irish Sea within the UK:
- A new Green Lane for goods travelling to NI with no more customs bureaucracy or routine checks
- Removing the ban on supermarket food like sausages – so what is available in GB will be in NI
- Scrapping customs for post and parcels so it’s easier to send gifts and shop online o Abolishing export declarations for goods going from NI to GB
- Solving the issue of steel movements into NI and also implementing a tariff reimbursement scheme
- Safeguarding Northern Ireland’s place in our Union:
- Ensuring UK tax policy applies to the whole of the UK – meaning cheaper beer and VAT in NI
- Tackling the ‘reach back’ of EU state aid law so businesses can trade and invest freely in NI
- The same medicines available across the UK – with the same packaging and the same labels
- Removing the ban on English oaks and Scottish seed potatoes being available in NI garden centres
- People can travel freely with their pets in and out of NI
- Restoring sovereignty for the people of Northern Ireland by eliminating the democratic deficit:
- A brand new STORMONT BRAKE, allowing NI to block new EU laws via a new UK veto
- Placing the Windsor Agreement in international law by subjecting it to the Vienna Convention
Richard Fuller MP said:
This week's agreement marks a turning point for the people of Northern Ireland. It fixes the practical problems they face and it also preserves the balance of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.
The UK and EU have agreed to work together to anticipate and deal with any other issues that may emerge and have made a joint declaration to resolve issues through dialogue, rather than formal dispute proceedings.
To give businesses and individuals time to prepare, the implementation of the agreement will be phased in, with some of the new arrangements for goods, agrifood, pets and plant movements introduced later this year and the remainder in 2024. In the meantime, the current temporary standstill arrangements will continue to apply.
The UK Government will no longer proceed with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, as the UK and EU have come to a negotiated agreement. Similarly, the agreement will mean the EU withdrawing all of the legal actions it has launched against the UK.
