London, Thanasis Gavos

In the Belfast the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is today Rishi Sunak for contacts aimed at convincing the Northern Irish of the adequacy of the ‘Windsor Framework’.

This is the agreement reached on Monday in the British city of the same name with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to replace the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol that accompanied the Brexit agreement.

In a morning interview on BBC radio, Mr Sunak said he believed “with his hand on his heart” that the New agreement solves the problems in trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which means that the latter’s position in the United Kingdom is now “secure”.

“Crucially it restores and protects sovereignty for the North Ireland“, said the British prime minister, admitting that the Protocol signed under Boris Johnson in 2019, with him as finance minister, was creating “issues” negatively affecting the daily lives of Northern Irish people.

Standing in the provision of the new deal for without controls and trade bureaucracy between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which make up the United Kingdom, Mr. Sunack emphasized that any suspicion of a border in the Irish Sea is removed.

He pointed out that now only 3% of European laws will apply to Northern Ireland, which will however retain its privileged access to the single market. In addition, Mr Sunack noted, the new measure, known as the Stormond Brake, would give the local parliament of the same name the right to reject new EU goods legislation affecting Northern Ireland.

In this way, he said, the “delicate balance” which is required to respect the identities of all communities in Northern Ireland as mandated by the Good Friday Peace Agreement.

On the crucial question of whether unionists in Northern Ireland, the community that wants the region to remain in the United Kingdom rather than union with the Republic of Ireland, will accept the deal, Rishi Sunak said they should be given “time and space to consider the detail’ of what was agreed with the EU.

Mr. Sunak’s mission now is to convince the largest party of the union faction in Northern Ireland, the DUP, to accept the agreement and return to the co-government envisaged by the peace agreement of M. Paraskevi. Otherwise, yes, the Windsor Framework will be approved with the support of the opposition in the House of Commons, but it will have reduced legitimacy.

THE British Prime Minister he also noted that the new deal shows how the UK can work “with its closest ally and trading partner” which is the EU.

He also confirmed that he has spoken about her new agreementsa with Boris Johnson, who abstained from last night’s House of Commons debate on the Windsor Framework.