The European Parliament positively assessed the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol

The European Parliament (EP) welcomed the implementation of the UK Withdrawal Agreement and the Windsor Framework, according to a report approved in plenary this Wednesday.

The report, written by the Portuguese MEP and vice-president of the organization, Pedro Silva Pereira (Socialists and Democrats), was approved by 537 votes to 43 with 38 abstentions at the plenary meeting in Strasbourg (France).

The MEP acknowledged that “the most serious problem in the implementation” of the agreement is, “without a doubt, the failure of the United Kingdom to fulfill the obligations assumed in the Northern Ireland Protocol.”

According to Pedro Silva Pereira, the Windsor Framework, which would ensure the integrity of the single market, avoid control of goods flowing from the UK into Northern Ireland and enforce Good Friday, is expected to be “a return to institutional normality in Northern Ireland,” said Pedro Silva Pereira. Ireland”.

“In terms of citizens’ rights, it is very important that 3.4 million European citizens, including 256,000 Portuguese, have received a guaranteed right of residence in the United Kingdom,” added the Vice President of the European Parliament.

Since the referendum that launched London’s exit from the public bloc (Brexit) almost seven years ago, and since the withdrawal agreement went into effect almost three years ago, the path “has not always been easy or pleasant,” the European Parliament acknowledged, but this agreement could now be the start of a new relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU).

Three years after Brexit, the Northern Ireland Protocol has become a major point of tension between London and Brussels.

This protocol, negotiated at the same time as the Brexit deal, keeps Northern Ireland, which shares Britain’s only land border with the EU, in the European single market while providing customs control between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. .

“Goods destined for Northern Ireland will move on a new green lane with a separate red lane for goods at risk of entering the EU,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in late February.

The opening of the green lane would eliminate the customs bureaucracy for agri-food products and “end the situation where food produced under UK rules could not be sent to Northern Ireland and sold”.

The agreement also allows mail orders from friends or relatives or online purchases to no longer be subject to customs documentation, and pets require documents to travel between the UK and Northern Ireland.