- European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK):
- The United Kingdom is an island nation in northwestern Europe.
- It is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- The United Kingdom borders one European Union member state: Ireland.
- Relations between the EU and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) date back to the foundation of the European Communities (EU predecessor) in 1957.
- The UK was a member state of the European Union after joining it in 1973, until it became the first country to voluntarily end its membership on 31st January 2020 after a referendum was held in 2016.
- North Ireland Issue:
- Geographically, Northern Ireland is part of Ireland. Politically, it’s part of the UK.
- Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that has a border with an EU nation, Ireland. It has been called the “problem child” of Brexit.
- An open Irish border, over which people and goods flow freely, underpins the peace process, allowing people in Northern Ireland to feel at home in both Ireland and the UK.
- The insistence of Britain’s government on a “hard Brexit” that took the country out of the EU’s economic order meant the creation of new barriers and checks on trade.
- Both Britain and the EU agreed that the border could not be in Ireland because of the risk that would pose to the peace process.
- The alternative was to put it, metaphorically, in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
- That arrangement has alarmed British unionists, who say it weakens Northern Ireland’s place in the UK and could bolster calls for Irish reunification.
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