Northern Ireland’s main pro-British party, the DUP, said on Tuesday it supports an agreement with the British government that would see an end to the long-running boycott of the province’s devolved administrations.
The DUP withdrew from local government in February 2022 in protest at a post-Brexit trade deal for Northern Ireland, the only UK country with a land border with the European Union.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Jeffrey Donaldson He said the deal with London, approved by an internal vote at a closed-door meeting in Lisburn, near Belfast, was the basis for restoring Northern Ireland’s parliament after almost two years.
“The result was clear. The DUP was decisive. I have a duty to move forward,” Mr Donaldson told reporters at around 1am (1pm Japan time) after a five-hour meeting and vote. “It was,” he said.
But he said overcoming the DUP’s veto on the return of Stormont’s power-sharing executive was conditional on the UK government in London passing legislation and a final agreement on a timetable.
Donaldson said details of the deal would be announced soon, but declined to provide further information.
“We believe this proposal will bring forward measures that will be beneficial to Northern Ireland and restore our position in the UK and its domestic market,” he said.
Mr Donaldson told BBC Radio on Tuesday that the draft agreement would be published “as early as tomorrow (Wednesday)” and would include “constitutional legislation” and “practical arrangements”.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he was “delighted” the DUP had accepted the deal and promised London would “stick to” its terms.
“I now believe that all conditions are in place for the return of Parliament… and I hope that we can finalize this agreement with the political parties as soon as possible,” he said (previously (formerly known as Twitter).
If the deal is approved, the DUP and pro-Irish nationalist Sinn Féin could choose a parliamentary leader as early as next week.
Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill is expected to become first minister, marking the first time a nationalist has held the post since the party overtook the DUP in the last parliamentary election in May 2022. Become.
~Public sector issues~
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said: “We are optimistic that northern institutions will be back up and running by the February 8 deadline set by London.”
The DUP resigned from the executive branch in February 2022 in protest of the post-Brexit trade deal between Northern Ireland and the EU, Britain’s main trading partner.
A key pillar of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian violence over British rule in Northern Ireland, opened the border between the state and the neighboring Republic of Ireland, which remains in the European Union. The goal was to keep it in good condition.
But Brexit has posed a challenge. How do we protect the European single market and customs union when the UK is no longer part of it and effectively has a back door open for goods to enter and exit through Northern Ireland?
The post-Brexit trade deal aims to square that circle, with the decision to move the EU-UK border down the Irish Sea for goods inspection.
Unionists are concerned that the solution would effectively put Northern Ireland on the EU side of the border and the other three countries of the UK (England, Scotland and Wales) on the other side.
They said the deal kept the province partially under EU law and opened the door to the possibility of Northern Ireland being reunited with the Republic of Ireland, but they strongly opposed this prospect. ing.
In long-running talks with London, the DUP sought to overhaul trade rules, including reducing the number of checks for goods traveling between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain.
The suspension of parliament paralyzed Northern Ireland’s power-sharing institutions and fueled political uncertainty and industrial unrest in the region.
Budgets were put into cold storage and public services collapsed.
Earlier this month, 16 civil service unions coordinated a major strike over pay, making it the largest industrial action in the UK region in decades.
London has proposed a £3.3 billion ($4.2 billion) financial package for the region to resolve civil service pay disputes, subject to the resumption of Stormont parliament.
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