The political impasse in the region began after Britain left the European Union.
Northern Ireland’s largest British trade union party has agreed to end a boycott that has left the region’s people without a power-sharing government for two years and undermined the foundations of a 25-year peace treaty.
The breakthrough could see Belfast’s closed government restored within days, with Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin holding the post of prime minister for the first time.
Democratic Unionist Party leader Geoffrey Donaldson said on Tuesday after a marathon late-night meeting that the party executive supported the proposal to return to power.
He said the agreement reached with the British government in London “provides the basis for our party to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive, which will see the restoration of locally elected bodies”.
“The result was clear. The DUP was decisive. I have a duty to move forward,” Donaldson told reporters.
The breakthrough comes after months of inconclusive negotiations, when the British government last week gave Northern Ireland politicians a deadline of February 8 to decide whether to rebuild the Northern Ireland Assembly and local government or face new elections. This was achieved by giving a deadline.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described it as a “positive step” towards restoring the system and “committing to the people of Northern Ireland”, his spokesman said.
Sunak’s Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris told reporters that little opposition was expected in Westminster and that “all conditions are in place for Parliament to reopen”.
He also said the deal contained “important changes to ensure that the internal market functions properly” and that he did not believe renegotiation with the European Union would be necessary.
Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from Belfast, said that although the deal had not yet been finalized, it was a major step for the power-sharing executive in Stormont, home of Northern Ireland’s parliament.
If the deal is approved, the DUP and pro-Irish nationalist Sinn Féin will be able to elect a parliamentary leader as early as next week.
Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill will also become first minister, the first nationalist to hold the post since the party overtook the DUP in the last parliamentary election in May 2022. This will be the first time.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou MacDonald said this was “hugely significant” and was optimistic that parliament would be able to reopen and operate before the February deadline.
A key pillar of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian violence over British rule in Northern Ireland, was to keep the border with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member state, open. there were.
However, Northern Ireland began to experience political impasse after Britain decided to leave the EU and its borderless trading bloc after decades of membership.
The DUP left government in opposition to new trade rules introduced after Brexit in 2020 that imposed customs checks and other hurdles on goods moving into Northern Ireland from other parts of the UK.
This checkpoint was established to maintain an open border between the north and south of the Republic of Ireland. But the DUP claims a new east-west customs border would undermine Northern Ireland’s standing in the UK.
In February 2023, the UK and EU agreed to a deal that eases customs checks and other hurdles for goods shipped to Northern Ireland from other parts of the UK. But that was not enough for the DUP, who continued their government boycott.
The two-year suspension also strained public services and led to a budget impasse with London.
It sparked the biggest public sector strike in a generation this month after workers in Northern Ireland did not receive pay rises given to other workers across the UK.
Steve Baker, Northern Ireland’s deputy secretary, sought to pre-empt concerns that the changes could mean the UK would have to comply with some EU regulations again, which would infuriate Brexit supporters. did.
“There is no commitment of any kind to bring GB (United Kingdom) into line with EU law, to prevent GB from departing from current EU law, or to do anything in Northern Ireland beyond the strictly limited scope authorized by Parliament. We need to strengthen cooperation,” he said on social media platform X.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the Irish government and the European Commission still needed to finalize a deal to be confident it would not have a negative impact on Good Friday or the post-Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, which was finalized last year. He said he needed to confirm. agreement.
But after a “good” phone call with Britain’s Rishi Sunak, Varadkar told Ireland’s parliament he hoped a new government would be formed by February 8.