UK-EU Relations After the Windsor Framework
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20419058231181278 |
| Author | Simon Usherwood |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
12POLITICAL INSIGHT•JUNE 2023
The unveiling in February 2023 of
the Windsor Framework marked an
important (and positive) step in the
relationship between the UK and
the European Union (EU). Not only did it seem
to address many of the concerns about the
situation of Northern Ireland following the UK’s
withdrawal in 2020, but it also seemed to mark
the end of the large-scale internal dissent within
the Conservative Party.
However, the Framework neither puts
to bed the various question marks about
constructive British engagement with its
European counterparts, nor does it mean that
Brexit is ‘done’ and that the issue will return to
the nerdier corners of Westminster. Instead, the
Windsor Framework represents a return to a
more classic mode of British European policy:
pragmatic, but somewhat rudderless.
The Northern Irish blockage
The causes of the blockage over Northern
Ireland’s situation post-Brexit result from the
incompatibilities of the requirements of the
various parties involved. The UK wanted to be
out of the EU’s central trading arrangements
UK-EU Relations After
the Windsor Framework
The Windsor Framework unblocked the impasse over Northern
Ireland, but does the agreement between the UK and the
European Union signal a new dawn in post-Brexit relations?
Simon Usherwood investigates.
– the single market and the customs union –
while also keeping Northern Ireland fully open
to trade with the rest of the country; the Belfast/
Good Friday Agreement required an equally
open border between Northern Ireland and
the Republic of Ireland; while the EU wanted to
protect that single market with a clear border.
The compromise reached in the 2020
Withdrawal Agreement’s Northern Ireland
Protocol was that the region would remain
inside the EU’s single market, while all sides
worked to minimise checks for trade with the
rest of the UK. That Protocol set the broad
framework and the hope at the time was clearly
that constructive collaboration would permit
further renements over time.
However, the then Boris Johnson-led
government in London took the view that
the Protocol they had concluded and ratied
© Xinhua / Alamy Stock Photo
Political Insight June 2023.indd 12Political Insight June 2023.indd 1218/05/2023 14:5818/05/2023 14:58
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