American lawmakers have demanded that the UK not rip up a post-Brexit agreement with the EU over Northern Ireland which critics say is holding the country back.
Senior U.S. officials have told the United Kingdom not to abandon a post-Brexit agreement with the EU which gives the bloc a degree of legal control over Northern Ireland.
Long-serving as a point of contention both on and off the island of Ireland, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss had been sabre-rattling about tearing up the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol agreement for some time now, but has more recently started taking more decisive action against the agreement after politicians in favour of it romped home in the region’s devolved government elections.
However, according to reports from The Times and the Irish Times, lawmakers in the U.S. have told the UK not to abandon the bilateral agreement by triggering Article 16 of the protocol, warning that doing so might risk the fragile peace between pro-British Unionists and Pro-Independence Nationalists on the island.
In an open letter to Secretary Truss, Congressman Bill Keating — who serves as the chairman of the foreign affairs subcommittee on Europe — and Brendan Boyle claimed that the UK scrapping such an agreement would violate international law as well as threaten peace on the island of Ireland.
“…we believe that, entertaining invoking Article 16 of the Protocol threatens peace in Northern Ireland, undermines the Good Friday Agreement, and is direct confrontation with the wishes of the majority of elected officials in the Northern Ireland Assembly,” the pair wrote.
“…the worst possible outcome of Brexit would be one that leads to violence and upheaval in Northern Ireland,” the open letter continued. “With a commitment that we will act as honest brokers, we call on you to uphold your end of the deal and act in good faith, within the parameters of international law, to maintain peace and stability in Northern Ireland.”
This call was echoed by U.S. President Joe Biden, with the White House asking for both the EU and UK to keep discussing the issue of the protocol in order to come to an agreement.
“The best path forward is a pragmatic one that requires courage, co-operation and leadership,” a spokesman for the White House said. “We urge the parties to continue engaging in dialogue to resolve differences and bring negotiations to a successful conclusion.”
While the U.S. urges the UK not to abandon the protocol the country agreed to under Boris Johnson in 2019, many officials both inside and outside the nation have threatened to take action should Truss decide to scrap the agreement.
The loudest war drums can be heard from within the European Union, with Germany’s leftist Chancellor Olaf Scholz denouncing any potential triggering of Article 16 by the UK.
“No one should unilaterally cancel, break or in any way attack the settlement we have agreed together, especially because we know that this is a complex issue which is not only about the relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom, but also has to do with the peaceful development of Ireland,” Scholz said.
“It has always been important that we find a comprehensive solution that meets all these requirements at the same time, and that is what we are committed to, without change,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Belgium’s PM Alexander De Croo merely told his UK counterpart regarding his potential scrapping of the agreement: “Don’t touch this.”
To add to the issues, politicians within Truss’ own Tory party have threatened to revolt over the possibility of abandoning the protocol, with a number of MPs worrying what scrapping the deal would do to British credibility internationally.
“I think the Government needs to consider not just some immediate issues, but also the wider sense of what such a sense would say about the United Kingdom and its willingness to abide by treaties that it has signed,” said ex-Prime Minister Theresa May said, before claiming that the agreement she had reached with the EU before being ousted “actually met the requirements of the Good Friday Agreement”.
“There are a lot of colleagues who will not support this,” The Times reports another political insider as saying. “We can’t go around ripping up international agreements that we don’t like.”
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