The White House said in a statement that the two leaders, who spoke on Tuesday night, discussed “the importance of reaching an agreement with the EU through negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol”. Truss, Britain’s new prime minister, is the architect of legislation currently going through parliament that would rewrite the protocol, a key part of the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU. EU diplomats have said the legislation is like “putting a loaded gun on the table” and should be put on ice if any talks are to take place between Brussels and the EU on the issue. Biden’s insistence that Truss must resolve the dispute over Northern Ireland’s trade status through negotiations with Brussels raises the stakes in the dispute. The Downing Street account of the call did not mention the president’s insistence on a negotiated settlement, saying only that the leaders “agreed on the importance of protecting Belfast [Good Friday] agreement”. In a sign that Truss wants to cool down relations with the EU, it decided to withdraw from an early confrontation with the EU over the protocol. Brussels and Dublin believe there is a narrow “opportunity” to restore relations with the new prime minister, with Biden now urging compromise from both sides. Truss allies say the new prime minister will not trigger the emergency provisions of Article 16 that override provisions of the Northern Ireland protocol in the coming weeks, a move EU diplomats say would have been seen as a “provocative act”. Truss’ team had considered using Article 16 because so-called grace periods, which the EU and UK agreed in 2020 to allow lighter touch controls on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, are due to expire on 15 September. But EU officials now expect Truss to ask for extended grace periods with both sides agreeing to “fudge” to buy time and open the door to talks to try to end the bitter standoff. A Truss ally said: “I would be surprised if we go down the Article 16 route, although we are not ruling anything out.” Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said Truss’ election opened an “opportunity” to restore relations. “I hope that we can use the next period to prioritize EU-UK engagement and reach an agreed outcome on the issues surrounding the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol,” he said in a statement. Truss supporters at the pro-Brexit European Research Group say they are relaxed about not using Article 16, but say the prime minister must go ahead with the legislation unless the EU makes significant concessions on the protocol. These include lifting many of the controls on goods moving from Great Britain destined to remain in Northern Ireland — using red and green lanes at ports — and ending the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the region. The bill has passed through the stages of the House of Commons and now awaits detailed scrutiny in the House of Lords. EU diplomats say Truss should put the bill on ice to allow new talks. “That’s the bare minimum,” said one. Senior EU officials said the UK’s softer approach of asking Brussels to extend grace periods was preferable to using Article 16. One said it would allow both sides to “continue confusion” in the short term.

Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, a consultancy, said a decision not to trigger Article 16 would create room for diplomacy, although the EU’s flexibility would ultimately depend on Truss’s approach to her bill Northern Ireland. “The European Commission and Council lawyers hate the idea of ​​extending grace periods, but politically the key voices in Brussels and EU capitals recognize that this is better than a big fight over Article 16,” he added. The European Commission declined to comment. Bert Lang, a veteran German MEP who co-chairs the European Parliament’s UK contact group, said he expected a truce. “What he actually does as prime minister may be different from what he promised in an election campaign,” he said. Tory eurosceptics want the EU to agree a new mandate for negotiators that would allow for a fundamental rewrite of the protocol. Video: Is the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill a breach of international law?