Ireland–United Kingdom relations

President Joe Biden is in Northern Ireland to participate in marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to this part of the United Kingdom after the U.S. helped negotiate an end to decades of sectarian violence that killed thousands.

Britain is ramping up a feud with the European Union by pressing on with a plan to rip up parts of the post-Brexit trade deal it signed with the bloc.

Legislation that rewrites trade rules for Northern Ireland was scheduled to get its first major House of Commons debate yesterday, the first step on what could be a rocky journey through parliament.

The European Commission opened two new criminal proceedings against Britain on Wednesday after London announced plans to unilaterally repeal some post-Brexit rules governing trade in Northern Ireland.

Britain's government on Monday proposed new legislation that would unilaterally rewrite post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland, despite opposition from some U.K. lawmakers and EU officials who say the move violates international law.

There was further unrest and violence in Belfast on Thursday night as nationalist and loyalist youths clashed at interfaces in the west of the city.

As The Irish Times report, police resorted to using water cannons to try to bring the situation under control.

European Union negotiators dismiss as "fantasy" some main British demands for Brexit, including on the sensitive issue of the Northern Ireland border, a senior EU official said on May 24.

The United Kingdom and Ireland could reach agreement in hours on how to run their post-Brexit Irish land border, paving the way for a deal that would remove the last obstacle to opening free trade talks with the European Union,Reuters reports.
 

No agreement has yet been reached between Britain and Ireland on the future of the Northern Irish border after Brexit, but a breakthrough could come later on Dec. 4, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.

Much of the future border arrangements between Northern Ireland and Ireland can be solved before Brexit talks enter the next phase, Ireland's foreign minister said, urging Britain to be realistic in negotiating terms to leave the European Union.

Britain vows that there will be "no return" to the hard Irish border of the past after Brexit as it attempts to defuse a deepening row with Ireland, The Telegraph writes.

The Government says that it wants to avoid "any physical border infrastructure" between Ireland and Northern Ireland under plans for new customs arrangements with the EU.