Sunak and Von der Leyen reach an agreement to unlock the application of the Northern Irish protocol

The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, have reached an agreement on Monday to relax the provisions of the protocol for Northern Ireland agreed as part of the Brexit divorce agreements but that London it refused to comply with the argument of the complexity and high cost that its implementation implied.

"An agreement has been reached", community sources have informed Europa Press, who have not yet given details of the conditions of the agreement closed by Sunak and Von der Leyen in a meeting in the county of Berkshire (east London). It barely lasted two hours.

Upon his arrival on British soil, Von der Leyen has expressed through the networks his desire to "turn the page and open a new chapter" in relations with the United Kingdom, a country that he has described as a "partner and friend".

Von der Leyen and Sunak will appear at a press conference at Windsor Castle at around 4:30 p.m. (continental time) to report on the negotiations. Meanwhile, Von der Leyen has scheduled another meeting with King Carlos III.

After two years of disagreements between the European Union and the previous British governments to unblock this crisis, the relief that Sunak took over from Boris Johnson at the head of Downing Street at the end of last year allowed the rapprochement between London and Brussels and the reactivation of negotiations to design "pragmatic solutions".

The agreement reached between Sunak and Von der Leyen still needs to pass the judgment of both the British Parliament and the community bloc, although it remains to be seen what its processing process will be. In recent months, the European and British negotiators had resolved differences over the control of the transport of medicines or the exchange of information.

For the moment, the 'premier' plans to appear this Monday before the House of Commons while, on the European side, the vice president of the Community Executive who has led the negotiations, Maros Sefcovic, meets with the ambassadors of the 27 in Brussels to bring you the details of the latest conversations.