Border issues show a new gulf in our ties with the UK
THE intractability of the Northern Irish Border issue in the Brexit negotiations could have been limited by stronger intergovernmental co-operation and UK government engagement.
It is not expected that there will be any progress on the Border issue at this week’s European Council summit.
The technical note proposed by the UK government on June 7 provides bargaining space, by providing a written text and not referring to technical solutions to the Border but, by seeking to extend the backstop to all of the UK, it also raises the possibility of the UK gaining the benefits of the single market, without the obligations.
In addition, the backstop proposal includes a caveat that it will cease once an agreeable trade relationship with the EU is reached, estimating this will occur in 2021.
On one hand, this is not a commitment, but an aspiration. On the other hand, the backstop is meant to occur anyway, only when there is no other agreed solution, so it is unclear why there should be a time limit.
Michel Barnier immediately stated the EU’s objections.
The Irish Government opposes a time-limited backstop. The UK government’s weak engagement on the issue since before the referendum has been a source of frustration for Irish officials.
However, better use of the Good Friday Agreement’s institutions in times of calm could have helped prevent these tensions since 2016.
For Irish officials, the UK government has not engaged adequately in negotiations and there is an absence of clarity. It is a far cry from the joined-up thinking and problem-solving that typified the peace process.
Although British-Irish relations improved dramatically from the mid-1980s onwards, and in the last 20 years the Good Friday
‘It is astonishing that there have been no joint statements from UK and Irish leaders since the Brexit referendum’
Agreement has had a significant, positive impact, highlighted by events such as Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ireland in 2011, this cooperation reflected more ad hoc initiatives from both governments, and formalised regular meetings of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, as envisaged in strand three of the Good Friday Agreement, did not occur.
The importance of formalised regular meetings is that governments are obliged to meet at prime ministerial level even when there are conflicts of interest and political will is weak, just as EU member state leaders meet regularly, regardless of tensions between them at any given time.
Brexit has highlighted that British-Irish co-operation is not as embedded as previously thought, and cannot be taken for granted.
Under strand three of the Good Friday Agreement, the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, representing Irish and UK governments, was part of what John Hume called the totality of relations – the broader relationship between Britain and Ireland.
It was meant to allow bilateral discussion of issues of mutual concern and Northern Irish nondevolved policy areas.
Yet, before the Brexit referendum and before Article 50 was triggered, it never met to discuss Brexit.
The conference has not met since 2007 and the number of UK-Irish prime ministerial meetings has fallen.
In 2009, there were nine meetings and in 2017, despite Brexit’s challenges, there were only three.
It is equally remarkable that more sustained joint prime ministerial intervention did not occur to help restore the Northern Ireland Executive, in abeyance since January 2017.
Given all the upheaval, it is astonishing that there have been no joint statements from UK and Irish prime ministers since the Brexit referendum.
The conference became a victim of the success of the peace process. Once violence ended and devolution occurred, there was a perception from both governments that they could lessen their involvement.
The conference, by giving Irish governments a role in non-devolved policy areas in Northern Ireland, was always sensitive for unionists, and governments were aware of that sensitivity.
Economic crises, particularly in Ireland, also meant that all attention was focused on other issues from 2009.
It is essential that the Good Friday Agreement’s institutions are fully developed and utilised in the post-Brexit era, but the ‘catch 22’ is whether the UK has the capacity and will to engage with its Irish counterpart, despite the latter’s trojan efforts.
In the meantime, as well as negotiating with UK officials, Irish officials will be lobbying intensively to maintain Northern Ireland at the top of the EU’s agenda for the October summit, given the migration crisis, US protectionism and all the other issues faced by the EU.
There is a busy summer ahead.
Dr Etain Tannam, associate professor in International Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin