The Windsor Framework is a proposed post-Brexit legal agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom, which was announced on 27 February 2023. It is designed to address the problem of the movement of goods between the European Single Market and the United Kingdom in the current Northern Ireland protocol.
The agreement was named after the meeting of the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the President of the European commision, Ursula Von Der Leyen, at the Fairmont Hotel at Windsor Great Park. After meeting the PM and announcing the deal at the Windsor Guildhall, von der Leyen then had tea with King Charles III in Windsor Castle.
The proposed agreement relates to goods crossing the Irish sea from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. It would introduce green and red lanes to reduce checks and paperwork on goods that are destined for Northern Ireland, and separate them from goods at risk of moving into the EU Common Market. It also includes a number of agreements on medicine control, VAT and alcohol duty.
The framework introduces a mechanism called the “Stormont brake”, which would allow the Northern Ireland Assembly to temporarily stop any changes to EU goods regulations from applying in Northern Ireland if the Assembly feared that the changes would have a “significant and lasting effects on everyday lives”.
US President Joe Biden called the framework an “essential step to ensuring that the hard-earned peace and progress of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement is preserved and strengthened”.
