Stormont will be voting on post-Brexit trading rules in Northern Ireland before the end of the year.
The Northern Ireland minister, Hilary Benn, triggered the process at the end of last week to enable Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to vote on the arrangements stipulated in the 2020 Withdrawal Agreement and last year’s Windsor Framework.
Initiated
The BBC reports that Benn sent a letter to the first and deputy ministers in Northern Ireland, Michelle O'Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly, as well as the Stormont speaker, Edwin Poots, urging them to put forward a ‘democratic consent motion’ to the assembly before the end of November.
The motion was included in the 2020 Withdrawal Agreement and allows Northern Irish politicians to give their consent to the post-Brexit arrangements negotiated by the British and European governments.
The consent vote will apply to Articles 5 to 10 of the Windsor Framework – which succeeded the Withdrawal Agreement on 1 October 2023 – as these articles underpin EU trade laws that are currently in force in Northern Ireland.
Unique situation
Under the Northern Ireland Protocol – which was implemented as part of the Withdrawal Agreement following Brexit – and its successor, the Windsor Framework, traders moving goods between Northern Ireland and Great Britain are required to comply with certain customs requirements.
The arrangements were bought in to avoid the need for a hard border on the island of Ireland.
It has been argued by some politicians and industry leaders in Northern Ireland that the situation gives Northern Irish businesses unique access to both the UK and EU markets.
However, Kieran Donoghue, the chief executive of Northern Irish economic development agency Invest NI, recently said that he’d not yet seen much evidence of increased investment in the region because of the dual market access.
Likely to pass
It is generally being forecast that the assembly will likely vote in favour of the post-Brexit arrangements, with RTE reporting that Sinn Féin, SDLP and Alliance MLAs will probably all vote for the motion.
SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme that he “would like to build support across the community, across society for the protections that are in the protocol”.
However, North Antrim MP and leader of the TUV party, Jim Allister, told Irish News that MLAs were being asked to “surrender” sovereignty to the EU in more than 300 legislative areas. DUP leader Gavin Robinson has also made it clear that his party will vote against the motion.
What happens next?
The democratic consent of elected Northern Irish politicians to post-Brexit trading arrangements in the country is a key stipulation of both the Withdrawal Agreement and Windsor Framework.
However, unlike some issues, the motion does not require cross-party consent and only needs a simple majority of MLAs to vote in its favour.
O’Neill and Little-Pengelly, who are from Sinn Féin and the DUP respectively, have until the end of November to table the motion.
If they do not, any other MLA may do so between 1 and 6 December, Irish News reports. The deadline for holding the vote is 17 December.
O’Toole has said he would be prepared to table the vote himself in December, should neither O’Neill or Little-Pengelly do so this month.