How Rishi Sunak's Brexit deal attempts to solve the Northern Ireland Protocol deadlock

Rishi Sunak is attempting to strike a Brexit deal with the EU and end the two-year stand-off over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The Prime Minister flew to Belfast to try to persuade the DUP that the compromise meets their demands to return to the Stormont Assembly.

He held talks with Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the unionist leader, on Friday morning, ahead of a planned phone call with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.

British and European officials have said the agreement is expected to be unveiled on Tuesday, when Mr Sunak will brief his Cabinet on the details.

But Sir Jeffrey signalled following the meeting that the DUP will not compromise on its red lines, and that he is "not focused on timescales".

Under the Protocol, which came into force in January 2021, Northern Ireland effectively remained in the Single Market and continues to follow EU rules.

The solution avoided a hard border with the Republic, but implemented checks on certain goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, creating a trade border in the Irish Sea.

Unionists say the new red tape between Great Britain and the province has undermined their place in the UK and damaged the economy.

The deal immediately began to fall apart, and two months after it came into force the UK had to step in to stop checks applying to goods like sausages.

Talks between No 10 and Brussels formally reopened in Autumn 2021 after the EU accepted the Protocol was causing serious problems in Northern Ireland.

They broke down under Boris Johnson and were frozen under Liz Truss, after eurocrats insisted the legal text of the Protocol could not be reopened.

But the arrival of Mr Sunak breathed fresh life into negotiations and a new deal, taking the form of a declaration to sit alongside the Protocol, is now imminent.

Here is what it is expected to contain.

Supermarket goods

The main selling point of the deal will be the creation of a new green lane for the vast majority of goods being sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

Any products that are destined for the Northern Irish market only will be exempted from all physical checks and almost all paperwork.

Only those which are deemed to be at high risk of travelling onwards into the Republic and the EU market will have to undergo extra red tape.

The whole system will be underpinned by a new trusted trader scheme, which Northern Irish businesses will be able to sign up to.

Officials in Brussels will also be able to access a real-time database on the movement of goods so they can keep tabs on any risk of smuggling.

Animal products

One area where checks are expected to continue is on shipments of live animals and some high risk animal products.

The island of Ireland forms one whole animal and plant health zone, separate to that of Great Britain, meaning that controls on what is arriving are required.

Before the UK left the EU, around one in 10 live animal shipments were physically checked at the province’s ports, which rose to one in five post-Brexit.

But the deal is also expected to formally confirm that a “grace period” allowing shipments of chilled meats across the Irish Sea is being made permanent.

Brussels initially wanted to ban the export of goods like sausages and burgers from Great Britain to Northern Ireland on food safety grounds.

European court

A controversial aspect of the Protocol is that it made the European Court of Justice responsible for policing the application of EU laws in Northern Ireland.

Under the current system, if the Commission considers there to be a breach of the agreement it can file a case straight with its own Luxembourg-based judges.

The new deal will say that disputes must first go before a Northern Irish court or an independent panel, which would consult the ECJ on matters of EU law.

But crucially the European court will keep its status as the “final arbiter” of Brussels rules, meaning any interpretation it hands down to them will be binding.

It is also expected that the EU will pledge that cases will only go to the ECJ as a “last resort” after criticism it has been too trigger happy with its legal action over Brexit.

EU laws

Northern Ireland has to apply around 300 rules, mostly covering goods standards, which the DUP has said is undemocratic as Belfast has no say in them.

The situation also creates a risk of divergence between the province and Great Britain, as the UK Government changes its own standards after Brexit.

That could mean that over time more and more goods that are manufactured or available in England, Scotland and Wales are banned in Northern Ireland.

No 10 proposed a “dual regulatory” system where companies in Northern Ireland could choose to follow either UK or EU rules, but that was rejected by eurocrats.

Unionist pleas for a democratic lock - whereby Stormont would have to sign off on laws made in Brussels, and could reject those it didn’t want - also look set to be rebuffed.

State aid

As well as standards on goods, Northern Ireland also has to follow the EU’s competition rules, including those governing state aid spending.

That means that the Commission has to give the green light to major spending projects the UK Government wants to carry out in the province.

Critics have warned that Brussels could also try to “reach back” and limit how No 10 spends cash in Great Britain, where companies in Northern Ireland may benefit as a result.

As with the application of other EU laws, the deal is not expected to directly address state aid, because doing so would require a rewriting of the Protocol.

But the two sides have come to an understanding that, following Covid and the Ukraine war, the Commission will take a light-touch approach.