Fondation Robert Schuman: Brexit and the Irish Question

08 February 2021

When thinking of the Irish question, it calls to mind the partition of the island of Ireland, ratified by the Government of Ireland Act of 23 December 1920, which was intended to satisfy the aspirations of the Protestant majority in Ulster, who were in favour of keeping the province under the authority of the Crown.

Partition was plotted on the basis of a sectarian calculation to separate the six predominantly Protestant counties of Ulster[1] from the overwhelmingly Catholic Republic of Ireland. It inevitably raises the issue of the border that separates the two jurisdictions, which over the last century has been a symbol of injustice for the Catholic minority and a target for republican paramilitary groups, particularly the IRA. Thanks to the Belfast Agreement, the so-called Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which was the culmination of a long peace process, one might have assumed that the issue of the Irish border would not surface in debate again. But this did not take into account the extent of the nationalist and Europhobic current in England, which would lead to the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union by referendum on 23 June 2016.

The culmination of the peace process

After three decades of conflict, modestly called the Troubles, in which the border between the two parts of the island of Ireland was the most militarised zone in Europe west of the Iron Curtain, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, followed by the Agreement at Saint Andrews[2] in 2006, marked the culmination of a long peace process and paved the way for political normalisation in Northern Ireland.
Thanks to devolution and in line with the first part of the Multi-party Good Friday Agreement, the British province was given a kind of constitution, based on the principle of shared power and the parity of respect between the two communities, nationalist and unionist, and also in line with the consociational model[3]. A democratic institutional structure was established with a bi-denominational executive and an assembly of 108 members elected by proportional representation. The devolution process has grown stronger over the years and following the St. Andrews Agreement the powers of the Northern Ireland Assembly were extended to include responsibility for police and justice. The Assembly must legislate in accordance with the safeguards designed to ensure that one community does not take precedence over the other, as was the case throughout the 20th century.
The second part of the Agreement, designed to strengthen the links between the two jurisdictions of Northern Ireland and Ireland, established a North-South institutional axis with the creation of a cross border (North-South) Ministerial Council to coordinate joint economic and social actions and policies on issues of mutual interest.
Finally, the third part introduced an east-west axis with the British-Irish Council, in view of in a broader perspective of constitutional change through the devolution of powers from London to the peripheral nations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This part of the Agreement aims to promote bilateral cooperation between the British and Irish governments, in accordance with the Bilateral Agreement, which is annexed to the Good Friday Agreement, in which both governments solemnly undertake to support and implement the provisions of the Multiparty Agreement.

Bringing the two Northern Irish communities and Ireland closer together under the aegis of the European Union

While the United Kingdom's and the Republic of Ireland's joint accession to the European Community in 1973 did not result in increased trade between the two parts of the island due to the conflict in Ulster, Europe, through its political and financial involvement, played a growing role in the process of peace and reconciliation between the two communities, which to some extent mirrored the stages of European integration. After the failure of the Sunningdale Agreement[4] in 1973, other unsuccessful projects aiming for a political settlement followed: the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985[5] and, following the establishment of the Single Market, the joint declaration of 1993, which was to initiate the momentum for trade between the two parts of the island and pave the way for the 1998 Agreement. In 2005, seven years after the signature of the Peace Agreements, the four freedoms of movement established by the European Single Market were fully restored and allowed trade to flow freely.
The gradual erasure of the border, with the disappearance of checkpoints, has opened the way for dialogue and consultation in 12 areas of cooperation[6] between the north and the south of the island. This cooperation has grown stronger over the years to the point where it has led to a pan-Irish socio-economic area through the expansion of trade and a partial pooling of resources, benefiting both sides. In the words of Jean Monnet, the scar of history had almost disappeared from the face of Ireland[7]. The primordial role played by Europe in the peace process[8] and the drawing together of the "two Irelands" has spanned several fields of action. Firstly, the desire to ease tensions between the two Northern Irish communities, unionist and nationalist, through a pragmatic approach to problem-solving; secondly, the guarantees provided by the European Union to Northern Irish citizens in support of the 1998 Agreement; and thirdly, its ability to transform relations between two Member States, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, through institutional innovation. According to Katy Hayward, this approach corresponds to the plural nature of Europe, which allows for a relevant response to each individual case[9].
Finally, the European Union has played a crucial role through its various aid and development programmes in the economic and social transformation of the province of Northern Ireland and the border areas. In all, its financial contribution totalled €13 billion between 1994 and 2020, which has steadily irrigated the region's economy and played a major role in its socio-economic development. Northern Ireland's agri-food sector, which mainly involves small businesses, has been a major beneficiary of direct payments under the Common Agricultural Policy. In 2018, they accounted for 70% of the total income of Northern Ireland's agricultural sector and, according to Ministry of Agriculture estimates, the majority of farmers were 60% dependent on EU funds for their survival[10]. For 25 years, as part of the rural development policy for cross-border regions, the Interreg IIIA programmes, financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF), have contributed to the development of a cross-border area of economic and social interest. The European Union has actively participated in the quest for common solutions in the fields of urban, rural and coastal development and environmental management. These European funds are co-managed by Dublin and Belfast.
The province of Northern Ireland has received significant financial support through the European programmes for peace and reconciliation. The aim of these programmes is to bring the Catholic and Protestant populations closer together through, among other things, educational projects, as well as to promote economic and social stability. The Peace and Reconciliation Programme (SSPPR) in Northern Ireland and the Border Areas was established in the early 1990s. Through Peace I (1995-1999), Peace II (2000-2006), Peace III (2007-2013) and Peace IV (2014-2020), €1.3 billion was transferred to the province and the border areas of the Republic. The 4th Plan aimed to promote inter-community contacts and to finance educational projects for children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, as well as for young under twenty-four year olds who lacked skills. The special EU programmes body (SEUPB) is one of the six cross-border bodies set up in 1999 under the second part of the Good Friday Agreement. Its remit includes the financial management of the Interreg and Peace programmes and involves co-management between Belfast and Dublin.

All European programmes that aim to resolving socio-economic issues have provided the province with peace dividends that have improved the daily lives of hitherto marginalised social groups[11]. These European cross-border programmes[12] are based on the fully open dimension of the border, concerning both goods and people. The increase in the number of projects they have generated, in particular, intercommunity and cross-border projects, has helped to improve community cohesion, reduce tensions and create a new social fabric within and between communities.

The threats weighing on the Good Friday Agreement

The British decision, the consequences of which on Northern Ireland were obscured during the referendum campaign in England, was widely perceived on Irish territory as an upheaval that seriously compromised the new order of peace and stability, built with much effort and guaranteed by the European Union. Brexit's approach, based on a withdrawal into identity and a concern to preserve a national cultural specificity, clearly ran counter to the dynamics of exchange and sharing initiated by the Good Friday Agreement. The prospect of the United Kingdom's exit from the country therefore raised a number of complex questions and doubts as to the sustainability of the institutional, economic and political balances that had contributed to the stability and renewal of the province of Ulster and the border areas.

Fondation Robert Schuman

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