LONDON (AP) — The UK and the European Union ended years of wrangling on Monday, sealing a deal to resolve their thorny post-Brexit trade dispute over Northern Ireland.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the “decisive breakthrough” marked a “new chapter” in the UK-EU relationship.
Sunak and and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed off on the deal at a meeting in Windsor England. Von der Leyen told a news conference it was “historic what we have achieved today.”
The agreement, which will allow goods to flow freely to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, ends a dispute that has soured UK-EU relations, sparked the collapse of the Belfast-based regional government and shaken Northern Ireland’s decades-old peace process.
Fixing it is a big victory for Sunak — but not the end of his troubles. Selling the deal to his own Conservative Party and its Northern Ireland allies may be a tougher struggle. Now Sunak awaits the judgment of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which is boycotting the region’s power-sharing government until the trade arrangements are changed to its satisfaction.