Biden pressures EU to strike Protocol deal
US president wants end to post-Brexit bickering over Northen Ireland before he visits next April
WASHINGTON has given the EU until April to agree a Northern Ireland Protocol deal with the UK, as it steps up political pressure to settle the row by the time Joe Biden visits next year.
American diplomats have urged their European counterparts to find a solution before April’s 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
“The US is increasing the pressure on the EU now to get the deal done by April,” an EU diplomatic source said. “In fact, they are encouraging both the UK and EU.”
Mr Biden has thrown his weight behind attempts to secure a Protocol deal, with momentum building amid improved UK relations with the EU, Ireland and France.
The UK has so far soaked up the lion’s share of diplomatic pressure from Washington. Mr Biden attacked Britain for threatening to tear up the Protocol because he believed it would put the peace process at risk.
The President, who is fiercely proud of his Irish roots, is expected to attend the Good Friday Agreement anniversary in Northern Ireland and White House officials have privately indicated that he would be happier if the situation was resolved before then.
The treaty means Northern Ireland continues to follow hundreds of EU rules to prevent a hard Irish land border and also gains lucrative access to both the UK and bloc markets.
British goods and animals face checks entering the country to ensure they meet Brussels’ standards, which increase Unionists’ sense the treaty is driving a wedge with Britain.
The DUP has boycotted the Northern Ireland Assembly over the Protocol since elections in May.
US diplomats are telling UK and EU envoys to work constructively to put the Protocol row to bed and get the DUP back into devolved government.
Britain has also effectively made April 10 the Brexit deal deadline to secure reductions in the Protocol border checks. This week it delayed fresh Stormont elections until April 13 to buy time for Protocol talks.
UK government sources said Mr Biden’s intervention was unsurprising. But they added that a deal would only be struck if the EU makes further concessions on the involvement of the European Court of Justice in the policing of the Protocol.
Rishi Sunak last week met Micheál Martin, the Irish prime minister, while Emmanuel Macron, who has consistently pushed for a hard line in Brexit talks, is in favour of a deal.
Maros Sefcovic, the EU negotiator, said a deal could be done “within weeks” if there was “political will”.
But the EU has shown no sign of moving on its red line that the EU’s top court must remain the final arbiter of European law in Northern Ireland. “The ECJ is here to stay,” one EU diplomat said.
Talk of a possible deal before Christmas was played down by envoys from EU capitals, who pointed out that only technical, and not political talks, had taken place since September.