The Democratic Unionist party has kept on track Rishi Sunak’s attempt to change the Northern Ireland protocol, declaring “progress” in Downing Street’s talks with the EU. Jeffrey Donaldson said on Friday a “big moment” was looming in the UK’s effort to cut a deal with Brussels over Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland. The DUP leader said his party would withhold judgment on any deal – which is expected next week – until it had seen the text. His conciliatory tone, and the lack of preemptive condemnation, kept Sunak’s path to a deal intact.
“The decisions that will be taken by the prime minister and by the European Commission will either consign Northern Ireland to more division or they will clear a path towards healing and to the restoration of the political institutions,” Donaldson told reporters after meeting the prime minister in Belfast. The DUP has paralysed the Stormont assembly and executive to protest the protocol and said it will restore power sharing only if a refashioned system meets seven conditions. “Clearly this is a big moment, the next generation of Northern Ireland and its people requires us all, I think, collectively to use our best efforts – particularly the prime minister and the European Commission president – to get these issues resolved and to get to a place where the political institutions can be restored,” said Donaldson. Progress had been made across a range of areas, he said. “But there are still some areas where further work is required.” Sunak, who left Belfast for Germany to meet EU leaders, elicited positive responses from other party leaders who had briefer meetings. Sinn Féin was heartened by the “significant progress”, said its leader, Mary Lou McDonald. “The bottom line is that we have to ensure that any deal provides for ongoing access to the European single market, no hardening of the border on the island of Ireland and a protection of the Good Friday agreement in all of its parts.” Colum Eastwood, the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP), said he was optimistic there would be a deal to restore power sharing. “I think most of the issues that the DUP have put on the table will be resolved, and we all know in every negotiation you don’t get everything you want.” EU officials believe a deal on the Northern Ireland protocol is close, after talks between the UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, and the EU official in charge of Brexit, Maroš Šefčovič, in Brussels on Friday. “Constructive engagement. Good progress,” Šefčovič tweeted, adding: “Hard work continues.” Striking a similar note, Cleverly said it was a “constructive meeting” and “intensive work continues”. “We are in sight of the harbour, but we are not quite there yet,” one EU diplomat said, noting Šefčovič had detected a turning point in British attitudes since Sunak became prime minister. “The tone was fundamentally different from what we have seen over the past eight years … [Sunak] is more interested in finding actual solutions than posturing and solutions that are just solutions in name only.” Briefing EU ambassadors on Friday about the talks, “[Šefčovič] conveyed a sense of urgency that this is close”, said a second diplomat. The EU is understood to have conceded ground on the issue of customs checks on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. The UK had proposed a system of red and green lanes for lorries that would allow goods in the latter category to avoid customs declarations. EU officials believe a compromise with lighter checks is possible, because the UK has agreed to share real-time customs data to track the movement of goods. The role of the European court of justice (ECJ) in policing the Northern Ireland agreement will remain, but there will be more layers of arbitration before disputes are referred to Luxembourg. Currently, the first port of call for disputes is a UK-EU “specialised committee”, but there will be additional venues for airing disputes about the protocol before going to the European court. “As long as the ultimate arbiter is the ECJ I think there is room for more levels [of arbitration] below that and Šefčovič was very clear that the ECJ red line would not be crossed,” said the diplomat. EU sources expect Sunak to announce a deal early next week, but remain unsure whether he can sell it to his Eurosceptic backbenchers and the DUP. “With the UK, you never know,” said an official. “We should hope [there is a deal] because I don’t see anyone else who is capable of doing it.” “The question is, to what extent can [Sunak] convince his party members that there is enough meat for them to accept – to what in their eyes will always be a suboptimal deal.” Meanwhile, David Jones, the deputy chair of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs, which has said it is in “lockstep” with the DUP, tweeted that Northern Ireland “must cease to be subject to laws made in Brussels”. “It’s as simple as that,” he said. “Anything less won’t work.” Speaking on Thursday night, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Micheál Martin, said negotiations had been “serious and substantive” but further discussions were due over the weekend when Sunak was expected to meet the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich.