Northern Ireland: Boris Johnson battles on two fronts as Brexit protocol returns to haunt him
Boris Johnson heads to Northern Ireland on Monday to try to break political deadlock in the UK territory which also threatens to bring to a head differences with the EU over post-Brexit trading arrangements.
At the heart of the disputes is the international treaty the British prime minister negotiated in 2019 to secure the UK's departure from the European Union, breaking a long impasse.
The government says it will have "no choice but to act" unless the Northern Ireland Protocol is reformed, amid reports that it is about to introduce legislation to unravel it. It insists it wants to reform the agreement, not scrap it.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), long opposed to the protocol, came second in recent elections and is refusing to form a government, or even allow the Northern Ireland Assembly to sit, while the treaty's provisions remain in force.
Under power-sharing rules set up as part of Northern Ireland’s peace process, a government can’t be formed without the cooperation of both nationalist and unionist parties.
Voters in Northern Ireland elected a new Assembly this month, in an election that saw Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein win the most seats. It was the first time a party that seeks union with the Republic of Ireland has won an election in the bastion of Protestant unionist power.
Many unionists are furious over post-Brexit checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, as required under the deal. The protocol keeps the north subject to many EU rules in order to preserve an open land border with the Republic of Ireland.
Johnson will urge political leaders in Belfast to get back to work and deal with “bread and butter” issues such as the soaring cost of living, his office said on Sunday.
It said
Read more on euronews.com
