LAST UPDATE | 1 Feb
THE DUP HAS given the green light for the recall of the Stormont Assembly, with powersharing due to be restored in the North on Saturday.
The announcement from party leader Jeffrey Donaldson comes after two pieces of legislation contained in the UK Government’s deal to resurrect devolution were fast-tracked through the House of Commons.
The two motions were approved by MPs this afternoon without the need for a formal vote.
The UK government fast-tracked legislation that would realise the measures outlined in its Safeguarding the Union command paper.
This would replace the Windsor Framework’s green lane process at Northern Ireland ports with a “UK internal market system” that will govern the movement of goods inside the United Kingdom.
The regulations will need to be approved by the House of Lords before they can become law. This is expected to take place on 13 February.
The DUP has said the UK government’s package to revive devolution in Belfast has delivered “fundamental change” to UK-EU arrangements on post-Brexit trade.
Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson has previously said negotiations had led to “clear” alterations to the Windsor Framework by ending routine checks on goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland.
Donaldson has written to the outgoing Speaker of the Stormont Assembly, Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey, to confirm his party was prepared to end its two-year blockade on the institutions.
“I expect the Assembly will meet on Saturday following the Speaker consulting and making all necessary arrangements,” he said.
— DUP (@duponline) February 1, 2024
“It is my intention to meet with the leaders of the other executive parties during the course of Friday to finalise arrangements on the key issues that will be tackled by the incoming executive,” added Donaldson.
When the Northern Ireland Assembly does reconvene at Stormont, it will witness the historically significant moment of the appointment of its first nationalist first minister, Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill.
In the UK Commons earlier today, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris sought to reassure MPs that the measures will not reduce the UK’s ability to diverge from EU rules.
“This is an important new safeguard to future-proof Northern Ireland’s constitutional status,” Heaton Harris said.
“No government in the future can agree to another protocol, nor can the UK internal market be salami-sliced by any future agreement with the European Union.”
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood told Donaldson during today’s Commons session: “I think he has done a lot of good work over the past couple of weeks and he’s been very brave.”
However, Eastwood added that the SDLP “don’t support” this command paper.
The SDLP leader said it has “moved far beyond the principles set out in the Good Friday Agreement, it is undermining north-south cooperation, and it’s far too much focused on east-west”.
He said all future negotiation should be done with all parties and both governments so that “everybody can feel comfortable with the result”.
Donaldson said Eastwood made his point “with fortitude and determination”, but added that he makes “no apology” as a unionist for having a “focus on protecting, preserving and strengthening and binding together” the UK, of which the North is a “proud part”.
He added:
And today is an important moment for us as unionists. The strengthening of our constitutional position within the United Kingdom is important.”
While a major change to UK-EU trade arrangements would require the approval of the bloc’s 27 member states, Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government has said the changes outlined in the deal with the DUP are “operational” in nature and don’t change the “fundamentals”.
This morning, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that the European Commision would “have some questions” and will want to look at “some of the detail”, adding that he had spoken to the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about the deal.
“There are definitely going to be some questions about what was agreed between the UK government in the DUP but nobody is, at this stage, saying that there are any red flags, anything that gives us major concern,” Varadkar told reporters in Brussels while attending an EU leaders summit focussed on renewing financial support for Ukraine.
Varadkar also said that Irish “red lines” related to the status of the border with Northern the Republic’s position in the EU single market had not been crossed.
“From our point of view in Ireland, our priority was always to make sure there was no hard border between North and South. I think that’s been achieved and protected,” he said.
Yesterday, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris spoke to EU Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic to explain the proposed changes detailed in the command paper.
In a statement, the Commission said it would “carefully analyse” the new measures.
With reporting from Hayley Halpin and Press Association
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