Loyalists attack police cars in Northern Ireland's capital, Belfast (2011 archive)
Photo: Peter Morrison / AP
As long as the EU refuses to make changes to the Brexit deal, the peace deal in Northern Ireland is in jeopardy.
David Campell, leader of the Northern Irish Loyalists, threatens a Protestant paramilitary group.
"If there is no change, I cannot see the Northern Irish executive will last beyond the end of the current pandemic," Campell said.
He added that there will be significant protests in the coming months.
The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement, better known as the Good Friday Agreement, ended three decades of violence in 1998 between Catholic-majority nationalists who fought for a united Ireland and the Protestant unionists or loyalists who demand that Northern Ireland remain part of the United Kingdom.
Campbell believes the Brexit deal is unfair because he believes it will isolate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK by creating a customs border in the Irish Sea.
He is therefore calling for a dialogue between the EU and Ireland to change the Northern Ireland Protocol in the Brexit Treaty.
In his view, it violates the basic principles of the Good Friday Agreement.
The EU opens »Pandora's box«
If negotiations do not take place soon, the EU will open the »Pandora's box«, said Campbell.
His paramilitary group told Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier this month that it was temporarily withdrawing its support for the peace deal over concerns about the Brexit deal.
The aim of the laboriously negotiated Northern Ireland Protocol is actually to prevent border controls between the British province and the EU state Ireland and thus possibly new violence.
The Brexit Treaty provides that Northern Ireland will continue to be subject to EU rules on product standards and customs regulations.
The result is a new trade frontier within the UK.
Imports from Great Britain to Northern Ireland must be controlled and comply with EU requirements.
CSU European politician Manfred Weber also hopes for a quick solution to the conflict.
He ties the ratification of the trade agreement with Great Britain to a settlement of the dispute over the Brexit special rules for Northern Ireland.
If no solution is found by Easter, he does not see how the EU Parliament can confirm the Brexit trade agreement during this time, the group leader of the European People's Party (EPP) told SPIEGEL.
The British government recently announced that it would unilaterally postpone the import controls in Northern Ireland that were agreed in the EU exit treaty for six months.
The EU has therefore initiated infringement proceedings.
Icon: The mirror
ssp / rtr / dpa