The EU’s Influence on the Peace Process and Agreement in Northern Ireland in Light of Brexit

Abstract

The UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU) has enormous implications for Northern Ireland. All sides to the Brexit negotiations quickly agreed that it was vitally important to protect the peace process and to uphold the 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement. However, the question of how this was to be done soon became a point over which there were very apparent differences between the two sides; such differences are manifest within Northern Ireland in differing political views regarding European integration and national sovereignty. This paper explores the effects of EU membership on the peace process and the Agreement in light of the Brexit process. It provides an overview of the difficulties and frictions in finding a common approach from Northern Ireland to the EU and explains how this is manifest in the response to the Brexit referendum of June 2016. It concludes by considering some of the ways in which the Agreement itself offers means of navigating some of the more thorny issues arising as a result of the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

Notes

1. ‘Barnier and Coveney hold press conference in Brussels (04/09/2017)’, Mikk Media News Network. Retrieved October 18, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZq_HIDTeXg.

2. This explicit reference to the European Union is contained in the ‘Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Ireland’ which forms part of the Good Friday Agreement, signed 10 April 1998. Retrieved October 20, 2017, from https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/alldfawebsitemedia/ourrolesandpolicies/northernireland/good-friday-agreement.pdf.

3. The Scottish government, Welsh government and National Assembly of Wales all submitted evidence to the consultation. In its contribution, the Scottish government noted:

We consider that the Call for Evidence issued by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in respect of subsidiarity and proportionality is one of the most important aspects of any review of the balance of competences between the EU and its Member States

Retrieved December 8, 2017, from https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/subsidiarity-and-proportionality-review-of-the-balance-of-competences.

4. The letter is available on the website of the Northern Ireland Executive. Retrieved October 19, 2017, from https://www.executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk/publications/letter-prime-minister-rt-hon-theresa-may-mp.

5. The details of the two applications for judicial review are available here: https://www.courtsni.gov.uk/en-GB/Judicial%20Decisions/PublishedByYear/Documents/2016/%5B2016%5D%20NIQB%2085/j_j_MAG10076Final.htm.

6. This reference is contained in Paragraph E of the EP resolution of 3 October 2017 on the state of play of negotiations with the United Kingdom (2017/2847(RSP)). Retrieved December 8, 2017, from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P8-TA-2017-0361+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN.

7. The joint report was published on December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2017, from https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/joint_report.pdf.

8. For comparison, this has worked well for the Nordic Council, which has some members who are in and others who are out of a range of different supranational blocs such as NATO, the EU, and the EEA.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/P009441/1] ‘Between two unions: The Constitutional Future of the Islands after Brexit’.