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 »
When Boris Johnson visited Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, in Dublin last month as part of a last-minute scramble to reach some sort of Brexit deal, the two leaders began their day with a media briefing on the steps of one of Dublin’s grandest buildings. In the Edwardian Baroque style, it was built by the British authorities while the Irish were intensifying their struggle for independence. “Fortuitously”, the Heritage Ireland website snarkily notes, “the complex was completed in 1922 and was available immediately to be occupied by the new Irish Free State government”. Rarely has the word “fortuitously” elided so much.… 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 »
El punto crucial del acuerdo de retirada de Reino Unido de la UE (y también el que ha causado mayor rechazo en el seno del partido conservador británico) es el denominado backstop;el mecanismo que impide que el mantenimiento de la supresión de controles fronterizos, acordado de forma transitoria, pueda ser derogado de forma unilateral por Reino Unido si no hay una alternativa acordada adecuada a la ausencia de los mismos (alternativa que ni el Gobierno británico ni nadie ha conseguido identificar de manera creíble). Mantener la libertad de circulación mediante la Zona Común de Viaje (Common Travel Area, CTA) mencionada en el artículo 5 del acuerdo de retirada es bueno para la UE, pero, sobre todo, es la respuesta a la demanda irrenunciable de la que el Gobierno irlandés ha hecho bandera.… 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 »
When “Britannia ruled the waves”, Matthew Arnold defined the “English genius” as “steadiness with honesty”, in contrast to the Celtic character, “an indomitable reaction against the despotism of fact”. As the Brexit countdown accelerates with no detailed UK proposals forthcoming, the situation has reversed. The consequences for Ireland, both the Republic that will remain in the European Union and Northern Ireland that must leave, are forcing Brexiters to react reluctantly to the despotism of fact, while Ireland and the EU maintain a steady honesty about what Brexit means. The Irish situation has focused the EU’s approach to negotiations, stymied the British approach and forged a new role and identity for Ireland in the EU.… 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 »
As Henry Farrell noted here on Monday, Brexit talks are in real danger of collapse. Britain is impatient to move past the first phase of negotiations, so it can talk about its future European Union trading relationship. But the Irish border has become a major sticking point. As I (together with Paul Taggart, Kai Oppermann, Sue Collard, Adrian Treacher and Alex Szczerbiak) argue in our research project “Responses to Brexit: Elite Perceptions in Germany, France, Poland and Ireland”, Irish politicians do not accept that Brexit talks can progress without detailed solutions on the Irish border from Britain. Britain has been reluctant to get into those details.… 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 »
A complete British withdrawal from the EU’s single market seems increasingly possible. Business organisations such as the CBI are openly expressing alarm about the prospect of a “hard” Brexit, the kind of rupture that would take Britain out of the single market and possibly even the customs union.
But largely ignored in Westminster and Britain more widely is that some of the most profound economic, political and constitutional consequences of a hard Brexit would be on Britain’s nearest neighbour, Ireland, and on British-Irish relations. Theresa May has indicated that, though both Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU, the English and Welsh majority in favour of leaving must prevail.… Seguir leyendo »
En el triste estado de cosas que quedó tras el referendo por el Brexit en el Reino Unido, parece que quienes hicieron campaña por seguir dentro de la UE han renunciado a luchar por el futuro de su país. Peor aún, parece que muchos han aceptado la premisa fundamental del bando opuesto: que en Gran Bretaña hay demasiados europeos.
Esto cambió para peor los términos del debate, y llevó a que se planteen un sinfín de hipótesis infundadas. Que aunque el RU imponga restricciones a la inmigración de nacionales de la UE, el acceso a los mercados no resultará tan afectado.… Seguir leyendo »
A un moment délicat en France et en Irlande, le président François Hollande devait être à Dublin le jeudi 21 juillet pour des consultations à haut niveau. Le président français rencontrera le président, Michael Higgins, et le premier ministre irlandais, Enda Kenny. Le résultat du récent référendum sur le maintien du Royaume-Uni au sein de l’Union européenne est regrettable et pose de graves difficultés à l’Union européenne et au Royaume-Uni. Le gouvernement irlandais respecte pleinement la décision du peuple britannique. Mais en Irlande, notre avenir est dans l’Union européenne !
Les Irlandais ont toujours été parmi ceux qui ont adopté une attitude la plus positive à l’égard de l’Union européenne et ceci avec raison.… 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 »
In my childhood, my mother would drive up once a year to Northern Ireland. The main stretch from Dublin up to the border was a slow two-lane road. Ireland was not yet in the E.U. so it didn’t have any access to its generous structural and development funds to modernize its poor infrastructure.
Once the security checks at the border crossing were over, we entered what seemed a foreign world. Everything was new and modern from the fast and wide motorway to Belfast to the big department stores offering so much choice. The prices were also low. Britain, not yet in the E.U.… Seguir leyendo »
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