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Control in the port of Larne in Northern Ireland: trade with Great Britain has so far been difficult
Photo: PAUL FAITH / AFP
Even three years after Brexit, Great Britain is still struggling with the special status that was subsequently agreed for Northern Ireland.
Ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson had admitted that the province is subject to the rules of the customs union and the internal market of the community despite leaving the EU.
Border controls are redundant, but the regime makes trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK more difficult.
Accordingly, London and Brussels are still negotiating how the Northern Ireland Protocol should be implemented as part of the Brexit deal.
In the negotiations, both sides have now apparently agreed on a customs agreement.
The EU has approved a draft that no longer provides for routine checks on products delivered to Northern Ireland, the newspaper The Times reported.
Sunak calls Brexit "huge opportunity"
Concessions have also been made with regard to the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ): it can only rule on Northern Irish matters if the case is referred to the Court of Justice by courts in Northern Ireland.
However, the exact role of the ECJ has not yet been finally clarified, the report said.
When asked, British government circles said that no agreement had yet been reached and that talks were still ongoing.
Despite these hurdles, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has recently defended Brexit again.
In the past three years, Great Britain has taken "big steps" to "make use of the freedoms created by Brexit," he said on the anniversary of the official exit on January 31.
The Prime Minister added that Brexit was a "huge opportunity" for growth, jobs and social mobility.
In the 2016 Brexit referendum, 52 percent of Britons voted to leave the EU.
After long negotiations with Brussels, the United Kingdom withdrew from the union of states on February 1, 2020.
Sunak, who has been in office for 100 days this week, stressed that his country "has blazed a trail as an independent nation with self-confidence".
He cited trade agreements with 70 countries and regaining control of our borders as positive examples.
He praised the planned abolition of remaining EU laws and a new subsidy system without "unnecessary EU bureaucracy".
He did not address the problems with the Northern Ireland Protocol in his statement.
Apr/Reuters/AFP