Windsor (United Kingdom) (EFE).- The agreement reached this Monday between the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) to reform the Northern Ireland Protocol introduces the so-called “Stormont brake”, a new instrument that will allow the Northern Irish Assembly block the application of new community laws in the province.
Announcing the framework agreement at a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen in Windsor, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the pact “safeguards the sovereignty” of Northern Ireland.
The document introduces the so-called “Stormont brake”, by the name by which the Northern Irish Assembly is known, which will allow that British province not only to be able to express its opinion on the rules of the single market of the European Union (EU), to which it still belongs, but also to block its application in the British province.
“This will establish a clear process by which the democratically elected Assembly can press an emergency brake” to introduce changes to community rules on property that would have a “significant and lasting” effect on their daily lives, the prime minister explained.
If this “brake” of Stormont is activated, the British Government will be able to veto the application of these new laws, in Northern Ireland he added.
This instrument provides the institutions involved in the historic peace agreement of Good Friday (1998) in the province with a new and powerful safeguard, in the opinion of London and Brussels.
What is necessary for the activation of the Stormont Brake
As detailed in the text, to activate the mechanism it will be necessary for 30 members of the Northern Irish Assembly (out of a total of 90), from two or more parties, to sign a joint petition.
After that, the London Government will consult with local formations in order to ensure that a proper scrutiny process is carried out, in which the potential impact and its response will be assessed.
The British Executive will consult the Northern Irish parties “how to carry out the scrutiny process, consulting with employers and other parties affected by the community regulation in question, and providing time to identify other possible resolution routes.”
It will only activate as “last available mechanism”
In this sense, he stresses that the “brake” should only be activated as the “last available mechanism” to deal with worrisome issues.
The “brake” will not be available for “trivial reasons”, but there must be something “significantly different about a new regulation, either in its content or scope”, and the deputies must show that the rule has “a significant impact on life daily that will persist”.
The mechanism will be available to apply to “specific elements of rule changes to new products or to a whole new law.”
Once the UK notifies the EU that the “brake” has been activated, the rule in question is automatically suspended.
The Windsor framework agreement will be put to a vote in the British Parliament, Rishi Sunak announced today.