New era for the UK-EU relations.

 Rishi Sunak, prime min­is­ter, and Ursula von der Leyen, European Com­mis­sion pres­id­ent, yes­ter­day

sealed the agree­ment in the shadow of Wind­sor Castle as they talked of open­ing a «new chapter» in rela­tions. Sunak and von der Leyen hope the deal to smooth trade between North­ern Ire­land and the rest of the UK will end years of grim post-Brexit ties between Lon­don and Brus­sels. «We have made a decis­ive break­through,» Sunak said at a press con­fer­ence with von der Leyen, as the two hailed an agree­ment to reform the so-called North­ern Ire­land pro­tocol, dubbed «the Wind­sor frame­work». The pro­tocol was estab­lished to pre­vent a hard bor­der on the island of Ire­land.

But it is hated by North­ern Ire­land’s Demo­cratic Uni­on­ist party because it cre­ated a trade bar­rier for goods trav­el­ling from Great Bri­tain into the region, which remains part of the EU’s single mar­ket for goods. Sunak yes­ter­day began the task of selling the deal to North­ern Ire­land’s DUP and Euro­scep­tic Tory MPs, with his high-stakes gamble show­ing early signs it could limit the size of a rebel­lion. Steve Baker, North­ern Ire­land min­is­ter and self-described «hard man of Brexit», scotched rumours he might quit, call­ing the pact «a great deal». David Davis, former Brexit sec­ret­ary, also backed the agree­ment.

Sunak said MPs would «have a vote at the appro­pri­ate time». However, many Euro­scep­tic Tor­ies may take their lead from the DUP, which is weigh­ing whether to accept the agree­ment and end its boy­cott of the region’s assembly at Stor­mont. The party has refused to attend in protest over the oper­a­tion of the pro­tocol. Ian Pais­ley, another DUP MP, told the BBC the reforms did not «cut the mus­tard», but Sunak said uni­on­ists needed «time and space» to decide whether to return to the power-shar­ing exec­ut­ive.

Sunak claimed he had secured fun­da­mental reforms to the pro­tocol, which went fur­ther than many Tory MPs had expec­ted. Sunak claims the deal will slash trade bur­eau­cracy and reduce the role of EU law and the European Court of Justice in North­ern Ire­land, as well as give the region’s assembly at Stor­mont a say over new EU rules. The Brexit treaty will be recast to include a new «emer­gency brake», allow­ing the UK, at the request of 30 mem­bers from at least two parties in the North­ern Ire­land legis­lat­ive assembly, to oppose updates to new EU goods laws in excep­tional cir­cum­stances. The UK will ditch the legis­la­tion intro­duced by John­son to rewrite the pro­tocol uni­lat­er­ally.

Sunak said it would make it easier to ship items includ­ing pets, medi­cines, par­cels and saus­ages between Great Bri­tain and North­ern Ire­land and end «any sense of a bor­der in the Irish Sea». Seven years after the rup­ture of the Brexit vote and the sub­sequent freeze in rela­tions, a Brit­ish prime min­is­ter and the pres­id­ent of the European Com­mis­sion stood side by side at Wind­sor’s Guild­hall, pledging to work amic­ably together. In the 17th cen­tury wed­ding venue chosen by King Charles and Cam­illa, and by Sir Elton John and David Fur­nish, Rishi Sunak declared in a soft­fo­cus press con­fer­ence that Bri­tain and the EU were «allies, trad­ing part­ners and friends». Out­side the Guild­hall, Euro­scep­tic Tory MPs and Ulster uni­on­ist politi­cians took stock of the agree­ment.

Sunak knows he has a big job to per­suade crit­ics that now is the time for com­prom­ise not fur­ther con­front­a­tion with Brus­sels. Boris John­son, the former prime min­is­ter, who in recent days has advoc­ated a more bel­li­ger­ent approach to the EU, still has his sup­port­ers. But Sunak’s allies said the vast major­ity of Tory MPs «just want to get this done». Moreover, it would remove the danger of trade retali­ation by the EU if Sunak’s gov­ern­ment had pro­ceeded with legis­la­tion to uni­lat­er­ally rewrite the pro­tocol, something the UK could have ill-afforded given the threat of reces­sion.

Joël Reland, a research asso­ciate at the UK in a Chan­ging Europe think­tank, said broader gains could be sparked by the agree­ment. Pres­id­ent Joe Biden had been press­ing the UK to reach a deal with the EU on the North­ern Ire­land pro­tocol since tak­ing office in 2021. An agree­ment should pave the way to a res­tor­a­tion of devolved gov­ern­ment in North­ern Ire­land. «I com­mend UK and EU lead­ers upon reach­ing this import­ant agree­ment. »

The deal will enhance the pro­spect of Biden attend­ing events in Bel­fast in April, mark­ing the 25th anniversary of the Good Fri­day Agree­ment that ended dec­ades of con­flict in North­ern Ire­land. It might also facil­it­ate work by Joe Kennedy III, spe­cial envoy to North­ern Ire­land for eco­nomic affairs, to foster more US invest­ment in the region. Sunak has delayed a par­lia­ment­ary vote on his deal to give MPs «time and space» to digest the Wind­sor frame­work. Euro­scep­tic Tor­ies will take their lead from allies in North­ern Ire­land’s Demo­cratic Uni­on­ist party, who last year forced the col­lapse of the region’s gov­ern­ment in protest at the pro­tocol.

But Sunak’s hopes of selling the deal were given a boost when senior Euro­scep­tic Con­ser­vat­ive MP Jacob Rees­Mogg said the prime min­is­ter had «done very well» in nego­ti­ations with Brus­sels. The second focuses on the European Research Group of pro-Brexit Tory MPs assem­bling a «star cham­ber» of law­yers also to exam­ine the text.

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