New Northern Ireland Protocol deal reached following VDL-Sunak meeting: UK government sources

The European Commission and the British government have reached a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol, UK government sources said on Monday, following a meeting between Ursula von der Leyen and Rishi Sunak. 

The Commission chief and British Prime Minister are to hold a joint press conference at 16:30 CET from Windsor, in the south-eastern English county of Berkshire where they held their talks. 

EU ambassadors will meanwhile convene in Brussels for an informal COREPER meeting to discuss the deal.

"I'm looking forward to turning a page and opening a new chapter with our partner and friend," von der Leyen said upon arrival in the UK earlier on Monday. She was also scheduled to meet with King Charles III. 

The von der Leyen-Sunak meeting was the second one in less than two weeks with the first held on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

It also comes after a flurry of cross-Channel talks over the past few weeks between Maroš Šefčovič, the EU's main Brexit negotiator, and his British interlocutor, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. Sunak has meanwhile also travelled to Northern Ireland to gather support for the deal.

The region has been without an executive since the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) pulled out of the power-sharing agreement over the Protocol in February 2022. It argues that the treaty undermines Northern Ireland's place in the UK.

Under the Protocol, Northern Ireland has remained within the EU's Customs Union for goods meaning checks must be carried out between the two sides of the UK. 

This de-facto border in the Irish Sea was seen as the best way to prevent the erection of a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, with some fearing a return of deadly sectarian violence that was