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Almost two years of political paralysis in Northern Ireland will end by Saturday after the British government laid out a series of proposals to update Brexit trade rules and strengthen Britain’s relationship with the region. It looked like it was coming.
The measures are detailed in a 76-page directive document titled ‘Protecting Trade Unions’ and address bitter unionist divisions that prompted the collapse of Stormont’s power-sharing executive.
A bill to pass the proposals, which includes the scrapping of customs checks on goods remaining in the region from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, is expected to be fast-tracked through Westminster on Thursday.
On this basis, Mr Stormont will reconvene on Saturday to elect the positions of chairman, prime minister, deputy prime minister and cabinet ministers.
Mr Stormont has not seen him since 2022, when the Democratic Unionist Party launched a boycott of institutions to protest post-Brexit trade rules that it said would undermine Northern Ireland’s standing in the UK and its ability to trade with the UK.
Upon Mr Stormont’s return, London has pledged to launch a £3.3bn support package to tackle the region’s financial and services crisis, which has deepened during two years of political deadlock.
Stormont’s comeback will involve historic changes. It will be the first time a nationalist has held the post of first minister in the region created more than a century ago by the partition of Ireland, which was then dominated by Protestant unionists.
Michelle O’Neill, who was nominated as first minister by the pro-Irish Unionist Sinn Féin party, currently the largest party on both sides of the Irish border, said the moment highlighted “the changes that are taking place across the island”. Ta.
The proposals, submitted to Westminster on Wednesday, the fourth anniversary of Brexit, were aimed at reassuring members that Northern Ireland is not cut off from the rest of the UK.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomed “the prospect of power-sharing being back up and running” in Northern Ireland within days, saying the DUP had taken “an important step” towards breaking the deadlock.
Proposals include ensuring that 80% of goods sent to the region from the UK go without a check, and creating a new ‘UK-to-UK trade’ body to promote Northern Ireland’s place in the UK’s internal market. is included.
The bill would also explicitly prohibit Northern Ireland from being excluded from the benefits of any future international treaties signed by the Westminster Government.
Despite the current trade deal for Northern Ireland being jointly agreed by London and Brussels under the Windsor Framework last year, the EU did not take part in negotiations on the proposal.
“This mandate was about strengthening trade unions,” DUP leader Sir Geoffrey Donaldson told a press conference at Hillsborough Castle. “Our job now is to present the benefits of a union.”
The idea of a trade border within the UK is anathema to the DUP, Northern Ireland’s largest pro-British party and the political group that has long dominated the region.
Several months of negotiations were spent between London and Belfast to address the issue. “We have turned the impossible into the possible,” DUP MP Gavin Robinson told the House of Commons on Wednesday.
John Tonge, professor of political science at the University of Liverpool, said: “This is a good deal, a common sense deal.” But he lamented “two wasted years” of political paralysis in one of Britain’s poorest regions.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris told MPs at Westminster: “Overall, this is the right deal for Northern Ireland and the Union.”
“The time has come to build on the progress of the past 25 years,” Heaton-Harris said, referring to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended 30 years of conflict in the region.
The House is expected to vote on Thursday to approve the changes. Labor and other smaller parties will support the deal and secure a parliamentary majority.
In a joint statement, European Commission Brexit Commissioner Maroš Šefčović and British Foreign Secretary Sir David Cameron said: “We both recognize the critical importance of restoring the Northern Ireland Executive and serving the people of Northern Ireland. I agreed.”
The European Commission added: “We will carefully analyze the documents published today.”
Additional reporting by Andy Bounds in Brussels