Interview: UK, EU wrangle over N. Ireland Protocol may last for years -- political expert

LONDON, June 29 (Xinhua) -- An ongoing wrangle between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) over the UK's proposed changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol, a Brexit trade deal, may last for years, a political expert told Xinhua on Wednesday.

David Phinnemore, professor of European Politics at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, said: "Most problems over the protocol can be resolved at some point, but we're some way short of actually reaching that point. We're probably talking years on this one."

A bill that overrides parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol passed the first hurdle on Monday in the House of Commons, the lower house of the UK Parliament. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is confident that the bill will become law by the end of the year if the Parliament cooperates.

However, the EU's ambassador to the UK has said London has taken a "unilateral action," and called the bill "illegal and unrealistic."

Following UK's vote to leave the EU in 2016, the island of Ireland became divided, with a 500-kilometer border between the Irish Republic and British-ruled Northern Ireland. To preserve a peace agreement brokered in the 1990s to end decades of sectarian troubles, special arrangements on the border were agreed by the UK and the EU.

It means there is no hard border on the island of Ireland, but there is a border down the Irish Sea, which means goods shipped from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland are subject to various export and import controls.

The need to solve the dispute over the protocol became more urgent recently, with the election of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein to the devolved assembly in Northern Ireland in early May.

Coming second in the elections, the pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said it would not sit in the Assembly, citing its opposition to the protocol.

Phinnemore told Xinhua that finding solutions to the border issues related to the protocol will require flexibility from both the EU and the UK.

"Some issues will be resolved, but there are significant pockets of very firm resistance to the protocol arrangements (from the DUP), and that's before they've been fully implemented," he added.

A poll conducted by Queen's University Belfast revealed on Wednesday that 55 percent of people in Northern Ireland see the existing protocol as a suitable arrangement. This represents an 8-percent increase compared with a similar poll a year earlier.

It also showed that 75 percent of people want to see a deal reached between London and Brussels.

"One of the key findings is that almost three quarters of respondents would much prefer the UK and the EU to reach agreement to resolve outstanding issues around the protocol, rather than the UK government pursuing unilateral action, as it seems to be willing to do with the publication of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill recently," Phinnemore said.

"There's a general view that if you have international agreements, you uphold them, you don't take unilateral action unless it's absolutely necessary and justified, and there's not necessarily a majority who believe that the measures (being taken by the UK government) would be justified," he added.