The Belfast Court of Appeal upheld the legality of the Northern Irish protocol on Monday March 14, inflicting a further setback on unionists who see the post-Brexit customs checks it introduces as a threat to the British province's place within from the United Kingdom.
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The lawyers of the unionist leaders - in particular former leaders of the DUP and UUP parties - at the origin of this procedure, already dismissed at first instance, plan to bring the case before the British Supreme Court in London.
They believe that this text, negotiated between London and Brussels as part of the Brexit agreement, contravenes the provisions of the Good Friday agreement of 1998, which ended three bloody decades of conflict between mainly Catholic Republicans, favorable to a reunification of the island, and loyalists attached to the maintenance under the British crown.
Local elections in early May
The plaintiffs also accuse it of being incompatible with the Act of Union, a law of 1800 which saw the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland merged.
Judge Siobhan Keegan rejected both of these grounds.
With less than two months of local elections at the beginning of May which risk upsetting the balance in place because of the push of the Republicans, according to the polls, Northern Ireland is plunged into full political crisis.
In early February, Northern Ireland Prime Minister Paul Givan (Unionist, DUP) resigned due to his camp's discontent against the protocol, leading to the fall of the head of local government.
His departure has further complicated negotiations between London and Brussels on the application of the text, which in fact keeps Northern Ireland in the single market and the European customs union.
The issue was raised during a recent visit to London by Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, who sought to display a united front with his British counterpart Boris Johnson against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Micheal Martin has deemed an outcome over the protocol "
unlikely
" before the Northern Irish election on May 5.
Boris Johnson meanwhile urged Brussels to make “
significant changes
” to the protocol, which has been in force since January 2021. Ahead of the meeting, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson indicated that his party would remain outside the power-sharing mechanism in force in the province until London acts to "
protect Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom
".
The protocol has been held partly responsible for an outbreak of violence in the spring of 2021 in loyalist areas of Belfast.
