The UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020 and all EU rules fell away at the start of 2021. Soon after, a row broke out over the Northern Ireland protocol, the tortuously negotiated agreement to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU single market and customs union.
The UK demanded a rewrite of the protocol in July. At first the EU said it wasn’t prepared to do more than tinker around the edges, but by October the European Commission had offered
Read more on theguardian.com