The UN welcomes the agreement on Northern Ireland because it "relieves tensions" between the EU and the United Kingdom

MADRID, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has indicated that he welcomes the Windsor Framework, the agreement reached between London and Brussels to modify the Northern Irish Brexit protocol, as it "relieves tensions" on the continent.

Guterres's spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, has indicated that this agreement "appeared to have posed a challenge to relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom" after Brexit. "So I believe that any type of agreement that eases tensions is welcome and we do so," Dujarric declared this Monday during a press conference.

The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced a "historic" agreement with which to turn the page on two years of tensions over the Northern Ireland protocol agreed as part of the divorce from Brexit but that London refused to apply due to the complexity and costs that its compliance entailed in the Northern Irish province.

"I am happy to report that we have taken a decisive step, together we have changed the original Protocol and today we announce the new 'Windsor framework'," Sunak proclaimed at a press conference organized precisely in Windsor Castle itself.

The result, according to community sources, represents a "balance" between the flexibility required by the British and the necessary safeguards to "preserve" the European Single Market, since the modifications affect issues as disparate as data exchange and customs control. , as well as phytosanitary regulations, trade in medicines, transit of pets, VAT and special taxes or public aid.

The fit for Northern Ireland in relations with the European Union not only means the end of this dispute but also paves the way for talks on another of the issues that remain open between London and Brussels since Brexit: the status of Gibraltar with respect to the community block.

It also means recovering the trust damaged in recent years and thinking about the new framework for future relations, as well as improving cooperation in the international geopolitical context. "I hope to jointly strengthen our cooperation in Foreign Policy and Security", the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the EU, Josep Borrell, has written on social networks.

The pact reached between Sunak and Von der Leyen still needs to pass the judgment of both the British Parliament and the community bloc, although on the European side only three laws must comply with the co-legislative procedure while the rest, the bulk of the changes, depend only on support of Council.