British–Irish Council

British-Irish Council

Representatives from each government, Glasgow 2016
Abbreviation	BIC
Formation	2 December 1999; 21 years ago (1999-12-02)
Type	Intergovernmental organisation
Legal status	British–Irish Agreement
Headquarters	Edinburgh, Scotland1
Coordinates	55°56′45″N 3°13′21″W / 55.94584°N 3.22262°W / 55.94584; -3.22262
Region served	British Isles2
Membership	Ireland (signatory) United Kingdom (signatory) Scotland Wales Northern Ireland Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey
Website	britishirishcouncil.org
1 This is the location of the Standing. 2 The term British Isles being a geographical term as distinct from the political. See British Isles Secretariat of the British-Irish Council. Owing to a dispute over name of the archipelago, the BIC uses a number of euphemisms to avoid this term in its documents.

The British–Irish Council (BIC) is an intergovernmental organisation that aims to improve collaboration between its members in a number of areas including transport, the environment, and energy.^[1] Its membership comprises the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the devolved governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and the governments of the Crown dependencies of the UK: Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. England does not have a devolved administration, and as a result is not individually represented on the Council but represented as a member of the UK.^[2]

The British and Irish governments, and political parties in Northern Ireland, agreed to form a Council under the British–Irish Agreement, part of the Good Friday Agreement reached in 1998. The Council was formally established on 2 December 1999, when the Agreement came into effect. The Council's stated aim is to "promote the harmonious and mutually beneficial development of the totality of relationships among the peoples of these islands". The BIC has a standing secretariat, located in Edinburgh, Scotland, and meets in semi-annual summit session and more frequent ministerial meetings.^[3]

Membership and operation[]

Membership of the Council consists of the following administrations (with current heads of administrations as of August 2021):

Member Administration	Representative(s)			Title
Guernsey			Deputy Peter Ferbrache	P&RC President
Ireland			Micheál Martin TD	Taoiseach
Jersey			Senator John Le Fondré	Chief Minister
Isle of Man			Howard Quayle MHK	Chief Minister
Northern Ireland[4]			Paul Givan MLA	First Minister
			Michelle O'Neill MLA	Deputy First Minister
Scotland			Nicola Sturgeon MSP	First Minister
United Kingdom			Boris Johnson MP	Prime Minister
Wales			Mark Drakeford MS	First Minister

The nine heads of government meet at summits twice per year. Additionally, there are regular meetings that deal with specific sectors which are attended by the corresponding ministers. Representatives of members operate in accordance with whatever procedures for democratic authority and accountability are in force in their respective elected legislatures.

England, unlike the other countries of the United Kingdom, is not represented separately, as it does not have its own devolved administration. It is thus solely represented on the Council as part of the United Kingdom. Although Cornwall technically holds observer status on the Council due to its language, it is also represented by the UK government.^[5][6]

The work of the Council is financed by members through mutual agreement as required.^[7] At the ninth meeting of the Council in July 2007 it was decided that with devolved government returned to Northern Ireland that an opportune time existed "to undertake a strategic review of the Council's work programmes, working methods and support arrangements." This decision included the potential for a permanent standing secretariat, which was established in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 4 January 2012.

At its June 2010 summit, the Council decided to move forward on recommendations to enhance the relationship between it and the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA). The British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly is made up of members from the parliaments and assemblies of the same states and regions as the members of the British–Irish Council. The Council tasked its secretariat with moving this work forward in conjunction with the BIPA's secretariat.

Work areas[]

A British-Irish Council summit hosted by Scotland at Stirling Castle

The Council agrees to specific work areas for which individual members take responsibility. The Belfast Agreement suggested transport links, agriculture, environmental issues, culture, health, education and approaches to the European Union as suitable topics for early discussion. However, these work areas can be expanded or reduced as the Council decides. It is also open to the Council to make agreement on common policies. These agreements are made through consensus, although individual members may opt not to participate in implementing any of these.

The current list of work areas and the member responsible are:

Demography was adopted as a work area at the 2006 meeting of the Council. It was proposed by the Scottish Executive, who also took responsibility for it. During the 2007 meeting of the Council the Scottish Government further proposed that energy become a work area of the Council. Past work sector areas included knowledge economy, e-health / telemedicine and tourism.

Name of the Council[]

Initial suggestions for the council included the names Council of the British Isles^[8] or Council of the Isles,^[9] and the council has sometimes been known by the latter name. However, owing to sensitivities around the term British Isles, particularly in Ireland, the name British–Irish Council was agreed.

The official name of the Council is represented in minority and lesser-used languages of the council as:

Summits[]

	Date	Host	Host leader(s)	Location held	Communique/reference
1st	17 December 1999	United Kingdom	Tony Blair	London	[1]
2nd	30 November 2001	Ireland	Bertie Ahern	Dublin	[2]
3rd	14 June 2002	Jersey	Pierre Horsfall	Saint Helier	[3]
4th	22 November 2002	Scotland	Jack McConnell	New Lanark	[4]
5th	28 November 2003	Wales	Rhodri Morgan	St Fagans National History Museum, Cardiff	[5]
6th	28 November 2004	Guernsey	Laurie Morgan	Castle Cornet	[6]
7th	20 May 2005	Isle of Man	Donald Gelling	Villa Marina, Douglas	[7]
8th	2 June 2006	United Kingdom	John Prescott	ExCeL Conference Centre, London	[8]
9th	16 July 2007	Northern Ireland	Ian Paisley Martin McGuinness	Parliament Buildings, Belfast	[9]
10th	14 February 2008	Ireland	Bertie Ahern	Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin	[10]
11th	26 September 2008	Scotland	Alex Salmond	Hopetoun House, South Queensferry	[11]
12th	20 February 2009	Wales	Rhodri Morgan	SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff	[12]
13th	13 November 2009	Jersey	Terry Le Sueur	Radisson Hotel, Saint Helier	[13]
14th	25 June 2010	Guernsey	Lyndon Trott	Fermain Valley Hotel, Saint Peter Port	[14]
15th	13 December 2010	Isle of Man	Tony Brown	Sefton Hotel, Douglas	[15]
16th	20 June 2011	United Kingdom	Nick Clegg	Lancaster House, London	[16]
17th	13 January 2012	Ireland	Enda Kenny	Dublin Castle, Dublin	[17]
18th	22 June 2012	Scotland	Alex Salmond	Stirling Castle, Stirling	[18]
19th	26 November 2012	Wales	Carwyn Jones	Cardiff Castle, Cardiff	[19]
20th	21 June 2013	Northern Ireland	Peter Robinson Martin McGuinness	Magee College, Derry	[20]
21st	15 November 2013	Jersey	Ian Gorst	L’Horizon Hotel, Saint Brélade	[21]
22nd	13 June 2014	Guernsey	Jonathan Le Tocq	St. Pierre Park Hotel, Saint Peter Port	[22]
23rd	28 November 2014	Isle of Man	Allan Bell	Villa Marina Complex, Douglas	[23]
24th	19 June 2015	Ireland	Enda Kenny	Dublin Castle, Dublin	[24]
25th	27 November 2015	United Kingdom	Theresa Villiers	Lancaster House, London	[25]
26th	17 June 2016	Scotland	Nicola Sturgeon	Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow	[26]
27th Extraordinary	22 July 2016	Wales	Carwyn Jones	Cathays Park, Cardiff	[27]
28th	25 November 2016	Wales	Carwyn Jones	Cathays Park, Cardiff	[28]
29th	10 November 2017	Jersey	Ian Gorst	L’Horizon Hotel, St. Brelade	[29]
30th	22 June 2018	Guernsey	Gavin St Pier	St Pierre Park Hotel, Saint Peter Port	[30]
31st	9 November 2018	Isle of Man	Howard Quayle	Isle of Man	[31]
32nd	28 June 2019	United Kingdom	David Lidington	Manchester	[32]
33rd	15 November 2019	Ireland	Leo Varadkar	Dublin	[33]
34th	6 November 2020	Scotland	Nicola Sturgeon	via video conferencing
35th	11 June 2021	Northern Ireland	Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill	Lough Erne resort, Fermanagh	[13]

See also[]

• Council of Ireland
• North/South Ministerial Council
• British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference
• British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly

References[]

External links[]

• Official website