The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, has defended in a meeting with his Irish counterpart, Micheál Martin, his government’s decision to postpone, by means of a law setting a new deadline, the holding of elections in the Stormont Assembly for another six weeks.
He also reiterated his «firm commitment» to defend the 1998 Good Friday Agreement «in all its dimensions», while recalling that the process can only be carried out within the framework of «a negotiated solution with the EU», according to a British Government communiqué.
«I think we all recognize that the protocol is having a real impact on the ground, on families, on businesses in Northern Ireland,» Sunak explained, adding that he wants the institutions to work again.
For his part, Martin stressed that there is a strong determination on the part of the British government and the EU to reach a «negotiated solution.» «Both the prime minister and I agreed that we would remain very focused with a view to reaching an agreement as quickly as possible,» he said.
In this regard, he has reiterated that he hopes that it can be achieved and «move forward» both in the restoration of the Executive and all the institutions under the Good Friday Agreement. «The people and businesses of Northern Ireland have made it very clear that they want agreed solutions,» he added.
The two have coincided at the British-Irish Council summit and have also held «constructive» discussions on climate change, rising energy prices, as well as the West’s response to Russia’s war against Ukraine, RTÉ television channel has picked up.
The British Minister for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, has promised Thursday that the Assembly elections will be held in the first quarter of 2023, after being postponed for another six weeks with the aim of «creating the time and space necessary for the talks between the Government and the EU Commission» to develop properly.
The Stormont Assembly has ahead of it a process to recover the institutionality of the Northern Irish devolved government now with the republican Sinn Féin party at the helm, following its victory in last May’s elections.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refuses to return to the Executive until the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol is resolved on its terms, so the process has been blocked for months after a failed vote to nominate the Stormont Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
Sinn Féin, led by Michelle O’Neill, won 27 of the 90 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and is currently the leading political force ahead of the DUP (25) and the Alliance Party (17). The Ulster Unionist Party has nine seats and the Social Democratic and Labor Party has eight seats.
