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Significance
Through a joint EU-UK committee, the NIP's purpose is to implement a regulatory and customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Amid trade disruptions and the EU's aborted decision to suspend aspects of the NIP's operation on January 29, hard-line unionists are now calling for the protocol to be scrapped.
Impacts
David Frost's replacement of Michael Gove as co-chair of the joint EU-UK committee could see London harden its approach to the NIP.
Victory for the nationalist Sinn Fein in elections in 2022, as polls suggest, could prompt unionists to collapse the governing institutions.
Further civil unrest by loyalists opposed to the NIP could trigger counter-responses by nationalist groups.
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2021
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