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Post-Brexit Governance NI

The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland

The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland is annexed to and an integral part of the (2020).

It comprises a Preamble, 19 Articles and seven Annexes. The  of the Protocol as agreed in 2019 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 31 January 2020, the day the UK withdrew from the EU. It has since been amended as part of the Windsor Framework (2023) (see below for a consolidated version).

The Preamble sets out in declaratory language the rationales for the United Kingdom and the EU agreeing the Protocol.

The legal provisions of the Protocol are then set out in the 19 Articles. These cover:

    1. Objectives
    2. Rights of Individuals
    3. Common Travel Area
    4. Customs territory of the United Kingdom
    5. Customs, movement of goods
    6. Protection of the UK internal market
    7. Technical regulations, assessments, registrations, certificates, approvals and authorisations
    8. VAT and excise
    9. Single electricity market
    10. State aid
    11. Other areas of North-South cooperation
    12. Implementation, application, supervision and enforcement
    13. Common provisions
    14. Specialised Committee
    15. Joint consultative working group
    16. Safeguards
    17. Protection of financial interests
    18. Democratic consent in Northern Ireland
    19. Annexes

Attached to the Protocol are seven Annexes containing either lists of EU acts applicable in  either 'the United Kingdom' or 'the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland' (Annexes 1-5) or provisions detailing specific processes (Annexes 6-7): 

    1. - Individual rights
    2. - Movement of goods
    3. - VAT and excise 
    4. - Single electricity market
    5. - State aid
    6. - State aid and subsidies for agriculture
    7. - Safeguards

The lists contained in Annexes 1-5 and any changes that have been made to them by Decisions of the Joint Committee are reflected in  an online updated on the Eur-Lex website. The changes made to the Annexes are discussed under Applicable EU Law. 

The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland as amended through the Windsor Framework (2023) - Consolidated Text

The Protocol was amended in 2023 as part of the Windsor Framework. The amendments were introduced through .

As yet, no consolidated text of the Protocol incorporating the Windsor Framework amendments has been published in the Official Journal.

As part of this project, we have compiled an unofficial consolidated version of the Protocol and present it here in two forms: 

  • simplified form indicating amendments introduced by the Windsor Framework 
  • annotated form indicating amendments and how the wider set of recommendations and declarations adopted as part of the Windsor Framework relate to the amended Protocol.