Rishi Sunak hails ‘new chapter’ in relationship with Brussels after meeting European Commission president

Courtesy of FT. https://www.ft.com/content/2017842b-eedd-4acd-91a9-22271bf8ddfa

George Parker in London, Sam Fleming in Brussels and Jude Webber in Dublin 2 HOURS AGO

Britain and the EU clinched a deal on Monday to settle their toxic dispute over Northern Ireland trading rules in a turning point after years of post-Brexit tensions.

Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister, and Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, sealed the agreement in the shadow of Windsor Castle, with both talking of opening a “new chapter” in relations.

“We have made a decisive breakthrough,” Sunak said at a press conference with von der Leyen, as the two hailed an agreement dubbed “the Windsor framework”.

Sunak claimed he had secured fundamental reforms to the Northern Ireland protocol, part of ex-prime minister Boris Johnson’s 2019 Brexit deal and a focal point of tensions.

Von der Leyen praised what she said was “a very constructive attitude from the very beginning” in the talks with the UK, adding that the two sides were “close partners, shoulder to shoulder, now and in the future”.

The protocol was established to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland. But it was hated by Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party because it created a trade barrier for goods travelling from Great Britain into the region, which remains part of the EU’s single market for goods.