:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/mentormedier/YBXYNCSWYDBFWC7TZEU4LOCD2U.jpg "Treaty on Northern Ireland must be changed – Our Country")
He discussed the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol with Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin on Tuesday.
Elections in Northern Ireland last week showed again that the protocol was unsustainable in its current form, Johnson said. He calls the situation very serious.
The protocol is in addition to the Brexit agreement between the UK and the EU. It governed Northern Ireland’s trading situation, and an important purpose was to avoid border control between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
As a result, the transport of goods between the British province of Northern Ireland and the rest of Great Britain was instead controlled.
The pro-British unionists in Northern Ireland strongly disliked this. They refuse to appoint ministers to the executive council – the equivalent of a provincial government – unless the protocol is overturned.
A European Commission spokesman said they would work with the UK and try to find a solution.
But the government in Germany appears to be taking a tougher line. Prime Minister Olaf Scholz warned Britain on Tuesday against trying to change the agreement it had agreed to on its own.
Boris Johnson, for his part, believes that the current situation undermines the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which marked the end of decades of armed conflict in Northern Ireland.
(© NTB)
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