Biden to Tap Joe Kennedy as Special Envoy for Northern Ireland

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden plans to tap former Congressman Joseph Kennedy III as the State Department’s special envoy for Northern Ireland, according to two people familiar with the matter, as the US looks to step up its involvement with the region.

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Kennedy, the grandson of former US Senator Robert F. Kennedy, will replace Mick Mulvaney, who left the position at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency in January 2021. The announcement should come in the next several days, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

Kennedy’s appointment was first reported by Politico.

The US is looking for a more active role in Northern Ireland as the region prepares to mark a quarter century since the Good Friday Agreement. Kennedy will focus on economic development in Northern Ireland, and will not be involved in US efforts to broker a post-Brexit impasse between the UK and the European Union, one of the people said.

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The Biden administration also wants to beat an unrelated deadline. Under a US law signed a year ago, most special envoys named after Jan. 3, 2023 will require Senate approval, a process that can take months or even years.

The State Department and the White House declined to comment Friday.

Kennedy, a Democrat, represented Massachusetts in the House of Representatives from 2013-2021.

The dispute over the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol — the part of the Brexit deal which keeps the region in the EU’s single market to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland — has long hampered relations between London and Brussels, even though both sides agreed to a trade deal in December 2020.

US diplomats in Europe and in Washington who have been engaging with all sides on the protocol will continue to do so. They include the US ambassador to the UK, Jane Hartley; the US ambassador to the EU, Mark Gitenstein, and Paul Narain, the US consul in Belfast.

--With assistance from Ellen Milligan.

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