The first round of talks launched by the UK government aimed at making further progress on post-Brexit relations were plunged into chaos after a boycott by Sinn Fein and the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour parties.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly was in Belfast on Wednesday (11 January) to brief party leaders about recent progress in UK-EU negotiations towards finally resolving the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
However, Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Fein’s leader in Northern Ireland and the First Minister designate since last May’s Northern Ireland assembly elections, refused to take part unless the party’s leader Mary Lou McDonald, who had travelled from Dublin for the meeting, was also allowed to attend. Cleverly insisted that there had been no party political snub and that O’Neill had been invited
Cleverly’s meeting in Belfast went ahead with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Unionist Party, and the cross-community Alliance party without the presence of either of the two parties that support a united Ireland.
McDonald, the opposition leader in the Irish parliament but holds no ministerial role, accused the Westminster government of “bad faith and petulance”.
“In conversations with Northern Ireland’s political leaders today, I stressed that while an agreement on the protocol is significant, it remains my view that the devolved institutions must return as soon as possible,” said Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton Harris.
Northern Ireland has been in political deadlock since March when the DUP, which supports Northern Ireland’s remaining part of the UK, walked out of the power-sharing government in Belfast. It has since refused to form a government with Sinn Fein, which won May’s assembly elections, until its concerns about the Northern Ireland protocol are met.
Under the Good Friday Agreement, the two largest parties representing the national and unionist communities must be part of the government.
Last week, the new Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said that the terms of the protocol were “too strict” and had “worked without it being fully enforced,” raising hopes that the European Commission to soften its negotiating stance slightly.
Earlier this week, the EU and the UK agreed on access to a new database providing real-time information on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Further talks between Cleverly and European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič are set to take place the following Monday. Officials from the UK and Brussels had hoped to be close to an agreement before UK ministers announce the date of new Assembly elections in Belfast, which are legally required after the failure to form a devolved government.
The UK is also anxious to have both the assembly elections and a deal on the protocol completed by April when United States President Joe Biden is due to make his first state visit to the UK to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement.
[Edited by Alice Taylor]
Source: euractiv.com
