The Windsor Framework is a proposed post-Brexit legal agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom which was announced on 27 February 2023. It is designed to address the problem of the movement of goods between the European Single Market and the United Kingdom in the current Northern Ireland Protocol.

The proposed agreement relates to goods crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. It would introduce green and red lanes to reduce checks and paperwork on goods that are destined for Northern Ireland, and separate them from goods at risk of moving into the EU Common Market. It also includes a number of agreements on medicine control, VAT and alcohol duty.

The framework introduces a mechanism called the “Stormont brake”, which would allow the Northern Ireland Assembly to temporarily stop any changes to EU goods regulations from applying in Northern Ireland if the Assembly feared that the changes would have a “significant and lasting effects on everyday lives”.

According to the agreement, the Northern Ireland Assembly can trigger the brake on any new “significantly different” rule implemented if 30 Members of the Legislative Assembly from two or more parties object, giving way to a 14-day consultation period before reference to the UK Government for consideration. 

Cross-community consent (support from both unionists and nationalists) is not required. However, “the government says a decision on whether to permanently block an EU rule, once suspended and following discussion in the Joint Committee, would not happen ‘in the absence of a cross-community vote'”.  The unionists are currently dissecting the agreement, and this could take some time as usual.