New post-Brexit rules for importing goods into Northern Ireland from Britain, the result of the agreement signed last February between London and Brussels, come into force this weekend.
From Sunday, goods arriving in the province from Britain and destined for Ireland or other European Union countries will undergo specific checks to verify their suitability for the European single market.
Goods intended for sale and consumption in Northern Ireland will benefit from a faster procedure.
For Northern Ireland’s Unionists, the new rules threaten the unity of the UK and the province’s place within it.
"On Sunday it will be confirmed that Northern Ireland has got a border in the Irish Sea," Sammy Wilson, a veteran MP with the largest pro-UK party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), told the BBC, arguing that this makes Northern Ireland a member of the EU rather than a full member of the UK.
In protest against the post-Brexit rules, the DUP has boycotted Northern Ireland’s local institutions since February 2022, preventing the formation of a government that is supposed to be shared with the Republicans of Sinn Fein, who have become the province’s leading political force since last year.
In order to preserve the peace achieved in 1998 after three decades of conflict and to avoid the return of border controls between the province and the Republic of Ireland – the UK’s only land border with the EU – the Northern Ireland protocol created a de facto border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Last February, this protocol was amended with a new framework signed between London and Brussels. However this did not satisfy the Unionists, who still refuse to end their boycott.
