Windsor Framework

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The Windsor Framework is a post-Brexit legal agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom which adjusts the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol. The Framework was announced on 27 February 2023, formally adopted by both parties on 24 March 2023^[1] and came into effect on 1 October 2023.^[2] The UK Government announced plans for revisions to the Framework's operation in January 2024.^[3]

The Framework was negotiated to address political concerns in the UK and especially among Ulster Unionists about the Northern Ireland Protocol.^[4] Under the terms of the Protocol, Northern Ireland, unlike the rest of the UK, remains in the EU single market for goods.^[5] This puts in place a de facto Irish Sea trade border for goods moving to Northern Ireland from Great Britain.^[6][a] The Framework changes aspects of the Protocol's operation, particularly to ease custom checks on goods arriving from Great Britain. It gives UK government more control over VAT rates applying in Northern Ireland and states that medicines placed on the market in Northern Ireland will be regulated by the UK and not the EU. It gives the Northern Ireland administration and UK government a mechanism to object to, pause, and potentially disapply updated and amended EU laws, mainly concerning goods.^[7]

Following the Framework's announcement, Ulster Unionist politicians, while stating that the Framework was an improvement on the original implementation of the Protocol, remained concerned that the nature of Northern Ireland's participation in the UK Internal Market was diminished by the Protocol's very existence.^[8] These concerns were a key factor in the refusal of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), from February 2022, to allow the operation of the Northern Ireland Assembly, thus suspending devolved government in Northern Ireland.^[9] In January 2024 the UK Government and DUP reached agreement on proposed revisions to the Framework's operation, the end of the DUP boycott, and thereby the restoration of devolved government.^[3]

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