Law students from the European Union are reporting for JURIST on law-related events in and affecting the European Union and its member states. Ciara Dinneny is JURIST’s Chief European Correspondent and a trainee with the Law Society of Ireland. She files this dispatch from Dublin.  

Earlier this month, the European Union and the UK reached an agreement on data sharing for trade. The agreement was reached following a meeting between EU Vice President Maros Šefčovič, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

A joint statement released by the parties on January 9 described the meeting as “cordial and constructive.” The meeting identified the need for several issues to be addressed moving forward. Nonetheless, an agreement was made on the specific question of the EU’s access to UK IT systems, which is regarded as a remarkable step forward. This step was considered a “critical prerequisite to building trust and providing assurance” which will provide “a new basis for EU-UK discussions.”

The parties agreed that a continued commitment to protecting the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement in all its parts is necessary. The Good Friday Agreement was a political agreement reached on 10 April 1998 which saw the end of 30 years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland. When the UK left the EU, Northern Ireland became the only part of the UK to share a border with an EU state. In order to preserve the peace deal and to ensure continued cross-border cooperation it was agreed that a hard border was to be avoided between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. This led to the Northern Ireland Protocol which came into force in 2021. 

In the Northern Ireland Protocol it was agreed that instead of checking goods at the Irish border, inspections and document checks would be conducted between Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland. This means that all goods are checked on arrival at Northern Irish ports and that they can then be moved into the Republic of Ireland. It was also agreed that Northern Ireland would continue to follow EU rules on product standards. 

However, since being signed the Protocol has been a source of much tension. The UK wishes to change the Protocol by creating green lanes for products going to Northern Ireland and red lines going to the Republic of Ireland, with only the red lines being subjected to custom controls. In July 2022, the EU launched legal action against the UK for its failure to comply with the Northern Ireland Agreement. 

Negotiations between the EU and the UK began in October 2022 to resolve the ongoing issues. The agreement on sharing trade data has been the first milestone reached in these negotiations. The intention is for matters to be resolved before the 25-year anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in April,