Inside Story

Will new UK-EU deal over Northern Ireland end the Brexit impasse?

The UK’s leader has been negotiating with the European Union to replace the Northern Ireland Protocol.

UK and EU leaders have clinched a new deal for Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Customs checks and paperwork for goods coming into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK began after Brexit.

Pro-British Unionists say this weakened Northern Ireland’s position in the UK and refused to take their seats in the power-sharing government in Belfast.

The new deal – the Windsor Framework – plans to make trade easier.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says it’s a “decisive breakthrough” and a new start for relations with the EU.

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen says the deal will allow both sides to begin a “new chapter”.

So is Brexit now finally done – or will there be further objections?

Presenter: Sohail Rahman

Guests:

Jill Rutter – senior research fellow at UK in a Changing Europe and senior fellow at the Institute for Government and works on policy and Brexit

Brian Feeney – historian, author and columnist with the Irish News in Belfast

Donnacha Ó Beacháin – professor at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University and author of From Partition to Brexit: The Irish Government and Northern Ireland