El ex primer ministro británico Boris Johnson ganó la elección general de diciembre de 2019 con la promesa de que tenía un “acuerdo listo para el horno” para “que se lleve a cabo el Brexit”. Pero si bien el Reino Unido, efectivamente, abandonó la Unión Europea en enero de 2020, el acuerdo de Johnson incluía un protocolo profundamente contencioso que regía el estatus comercial especial de Irlanda del Norte. En consecuencia, la exitosa negociación del primer ministro británico, Rishi Sunak, de un acuerdo enmendado con la presidenta de la Comisión Europea, Ursula von der Leyen, es un avance bien recibido que podría marcar un punto de inflexión en las relaciones entre el Reino Unido y la UE.… Seguir leyendo »
El gobierno del Reino Unido y la Comisión Europea han logrado un importante acuerdo de implementación del Protocolo sobre Irlanda e Irlanda del Norte, denominado “Marco de Windsor”, que simplifica el sistema de controles aduaneros entre Gran Bretaña e Irlanda del Norte y desbloquea un contencioso de varios años. El acuerdo está pendiente de ratificación por el Parlamento británico, pero de validarse iniciaría una nueva y positiva etapa en las relaciones euro-británicas.
Resumen
El primer ministro del Reino Unido, Rishi Sunak, y la presidenta de la Comisión, Ursula von der Leyen, acordaron el 27 de febrero de 2023 un importante marco de simplificación de los controles aduaneros entre Gran Bretaña e Irlanda del Norte establecidos en el Protocolo sobre Irlanda e Irlanda del Norte, dentro del Acuerdo de Retirada.… Seguir leyendo »
Nos acercamos a la fecha ignominiosa, el 31 de diciembre de 2020, sin que haya acuerdo sobre el Brexit, lo que significa una salida a la brava del Reino Unido de la Unión Europea con graves daños para ambas. Conscientes de ello, van a negociar hasta el último minuto para alcanzar, si no un acuerdo, al menos «salvar los muebles», como se conoce en lenguaje diplomático a la teoría de que los daños sean los menos posibles, aunque incluso eso resulta difícil, ya que las diferencias son enormes y las posiciones están enquistadas.
Lo único que hemos alcanzado es a localizar el origen del obstáculo, que no es la pesca en aguas inglesas, sin duda importante para cierto sector de la población, pero no tanto como para bloquear un acuerdo de tal envergadura.… Seguir leyendo »
The Irish have long been said to have a way with words—and there has been no shortage of them expended in the argument over the possibility of a Brexit-induced reinstatement of a border partitioning the island of Ireland. Since the 2016 referendum, numerous books have been published on the subject; thousands of newspaper articles have been written; famous Irish actors have taken to reciting poems to plea on the border’s behalf; and the border itself has a popular Twitter account, providing daily commentary—sometimes wry, sometimes raging—on the debate about its future.
More than three years into the Brexit mess, it would seem that our war of words may have finally gotten through to the British prime minister.… Seguir leyendo »
La controversia a propósito de la frontera irlandesa nos recuerda que la soberanía ha estado en el centro del callejón sin salida del Brexit desde el principio. Una de las tareas fundamentales de un Estado soberano es garantizar la seguridad nacional mediante el control de fronteras. El Acuerdo de Viernes Santo, que acabó con décadas de brutal violencia política en Irlanda del Norte entre católicos republicanos y protestantes unionistas, suprimió la frontera entre el norte y el sur. La decisión fue la expresión de la soberanía de la República de Irlanda y del Reino Unido.
El de Viernes Santo fue también un acuerdo sobre la identidad nacional, un corolario de la soberanía.… Seguir leyendo »
One of the disconcerting things about Brexit is its capacity constantly to rewrite the script of political dysfunction. The latest government proposals won’t work. They do represent a significant concession, but create an incoherent muddle leading to a bizarre outcome.
Northern Ireland would remain part of Europe’s single market but Britain would leave it. There would be regulatory checks down the Irish Sea but not at the Irish border. There would however be customs checks, so the border would not be open as now. And Northern Ireland’s membership of the single market could be unilaterally revoked by its assembly, which is not presently able to constitute itself, and so the whole plan is subject to the notorious vagaries of Northern Irish politics.… Seguir leyendo »
Two weeks ago I was on the outskirts of Derry, a town in Northern Ireland, just a few yards away from the border where Britain ends and the Republic of Ireland begins. Behind a garden wall, a wiry, older man was eager to vent.
“This is Ireland! The English have no business here,” he exclaimed. He pointed down the road toward a small stone bridge. The checkpoint there vanished two decades ago, he said. Should the British try to erect a new guard house, he went on, “we will burn it down.”
Come on, I cajoled him, incredulously. What will really happen if, after Britain leaves the European Union, customs officers or the police might be stationed at what will then be a new border?… Seguir leyendo »
My friend Sean, like a lot of people in Ireland, tells a good story. He used to work for the National Roads Authority; they couldn’t call it the Irish Roads Authority, he liked to joke, because the abbreviation “I.R.A.” was already taken.
In 2010, Sean organized an event to celebrate the completion of a highway linking Dublin to Belfast, in Northern Ireland. You could now commute between the two capital cities, which had once seemed worlds apart, in under two hours. One of the grandees invited to celebrate on a stretch of road outside Newry in the north was Martin McGuinness, the former Irish Republican Army gunman who, like a number of ex-paramilitaries, had reinvented himself as a politician and helped engineer the Good Friday Agreement, which brought an end to the three-decade conflict known as the Troubles in 1998.… Seguir leyendo »
If anyone needs tidings of comfort and joy this holiday season, it is the long-suffering people of Northern Ireland. The unique challenges posed by the Irish border vexed more than 18 months of Brexit negotiations and could still scupper a deal. As the end game nears, the peace process is not a price worth paying.
When Ireland gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1921, the six northern counties comprising Northern Ireland remained part of the union. Its status has remained contested — with more than 3,600 killed during decades of violence known as the Troubles — between the Protestant and predominantly unionist community, and the Catholic and largely nationalist one.… Seguir leyendo »
Just before lunchtime on Monday, European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted: “Tell me why I like Mondays!” He had just gotten off the phone with the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar. Varadkar told Tusk that Ireland was happy with a formula of words the British government had already agreed to: that, after Brexit, there will be “continued regulatory alignment” between both parts of Ireland. Behind this technocratic phrase, there was a great retreat by the British.
They had previously insisted that Northern Ireland is as British as Yorkshire and thus could have no special status after Brexit. The Irish government, with the full support of the European Union, had argued that this would mean the reimposition of a hard border on the island of Ireland and a real danger of undermining the Belfast Agreement of 1998 that ended the Troubles.… Seguir leyendo »
Simon Coveney, Republic of Ireland minister for foreign affairs and trade, speaks with Jason Naselli about his government's approach to the border, the Conservative/DUP deal and the 'Brexit bill'.
What is the Irish government’s preferred solution with regards to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic if the UK leaves the EU customs union?
Our preferred solution is that we find a way of maintaining as close to the status quo as possible. We don’t believe we can do that by simply using technology on the border. There needs to be quite a unique political solution agreed between Ireland, the UK and the EU that can allow the free movement of goods and services and people, and the normal environment that has been created in the border area on the island of Ireland, to continue.… Seguir leyendo »
In 1998, for the first time since partition in 1921, the people of Ireland, North and South, joined in voting for change when they took part in referendums on the Good Friday Agreement. That agreement was founded on the democratic principle that the people of Ireland, North and South, should determine their own future.
The Good Friday Agreement replaced decades of conflict and injustice with a deal that put power-sharing and equality at the heart of government. The agreement was endorsed by a resounding 71 percent of voters in the North and a remarkable 94 percent in the South of Ireland.… Seguir leyendo »
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