User:L.tak/Ireland

The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland is a protocol to the Brexit withdrawal agreement, which includes arrangements with regards to trade in goods. It was negotiated between the European Union and the United Kingdom following the withdrawal of the latter from the European Union (Brexit) and entered into force on 1 February 2020. Its provisions however only became effective at the end of the transition phase on 1 January 2021. As a result of Brexit, the European Union has an external border in Ireland: between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Customs formalities would however be contrary to the Good Friday agreements between the UK and Ireland, which allow for xxx.

2018 negotiations: Irish backstop proposal
The May government and the European Commission presented plans for the Irish backstop in December 2017. The text was finalised in November 2018, and aimed to prevent an evident border (one with customs controls) between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit by keeping Northern Ireland in some aspects of the Single Market, until an alternative arrangement were agreed between the EU and the UK. The proposal also provided for the UK as a whole to have a common customs territory with the EU until a solution were delivered to avoid the need for customs controls within the UK (between Northern Ireland and Great Britain). The 'backstop' element was that the arrangement would have continued to apply potentially indefinitely unless the UK and the EU were both to agree on a different arrangement, for example on a trade agreement between UK and EU at the end of the transition period. The single customs territory between the United Kingdom and the EU does not cover fish products: as a result fish transported from Great Britain to Northern Ireland would be subject to EU tariffs unless a separate agreement on fisheries were reached.

The Brexit withdrawal agreement containing this provision was rejected three times by the UK parliament.

2019 negotiations
In July 2019 Boris Johnson became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party. On 28 August 2019, the Johnson government refused any negotiations with Brussels unless the backstop be scrapped, which the EU declared that it would not do.