About the work of the British-Irish Council

Work of the British-Irish Council

The members of the British-Irish Council co-operate on bringing work forward in areas of mutual interest. The current areas of work are:

• collaborative spatial planning
• demography
• digital inclusion
• early years policy
• energy
• environment
• housing
• indigenous, minority and lesser-used languages
• misuse of drugs
• social inclusion
• transport

Past work sector areas included knowledge economy, e-health / telemedicine, and tourism.

Objectives

The purpose of the British-Irish Council is to promote the harmonious and mutually beneficial development of the totality of relationships among the peoples of Ireland and the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

The council normally operates by consensus and members aim to co-operate on matters of mutual interest. This means that members of the council work together to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Members of the BIC may agree common policies or common actions, although individual Members may opt not to participate in such common policies or common actions.

Priority areas of work of the council

At its first summit in London in December 1999, the Council agreed a number of priority areas of work:

• misuse of drugs (Ireland)
• environment (United Kingdom)
• knowledge economy (Jersey)
• social inclusion (Scotland and Wales)
• transport (Northern Ireland)
• tourism (Guernsey)

2 further areas, tourism and telemedicine, were agreed at the second summit in Dublin in November 2001 and the area of minority and lesser-used languages was agreed at the third summit in Jersey in June 2002. At the eighth summit held in London in June 2006, the council agreed demography as a new area of work.

Further new areas were agreed by the council at the twelfth summit in Cardiff in February 2009 - an energy workstream focusing on grid infrastructure and marine renewables, a collaborative spatial planning workstream and a housing workstream. Work in the area of tourism, e-health / telemedicine and the knowledge economy has since concluded.

Members have taken the lead in current areas of work as follows:

How work is assigned

Members opt to take the lead in particular areas of work, and this is approved by a summit meeting of the council. When a member takes the “lead”, it means that they have responsibility for taking forward work in that area, including convening meetings, the preparation of agendas and documents etc in consultation with other members, with a view to exchanging information between members and sharing expertise and experiences. While there is no obligation on any member of the council to take the lead in an area of work, all members have chosen to do so.

Sharing the work

In many cases, the areas that Members have chosen are very wide-ranging. In order to maximize the benefits to the Council, Members have elected to concentrate on particular aspects of such issues, e.g. the Isle of Man agreed to lead on the area of Health, but with a particular focus on the application of telemedicine. In other areas, while retaining the lead, the administration responsible works in co-ordination with subgroups in particular areas which can also be led by other Members for example, on the Environment, the priority area of work for which the UK have the lead, in consultation with the other Members, areas of focus include waste management (Scotland), Sellafield and radioactive waste (Ireland and the Isle of Man). The UK is leading on climate change. This approach means that Members can concentrate on certain aspects of an issue, often where they have a particular expertise, and that all Members can derive maximum benefit from the work of the Council.

Future areas of work

Members can take the lead in more than one area of work, and at its first summit, the Council agreed several other areas, in addition to those listed above, which would be of particular interest to Members. The list includes:

• agricultural issues
• regional issues
• sporting activity
• energy issues
• cultural issues
• education issues
• approaches to EU issues
• prison and probation issues

This is not an exhaustive list, and Members continue to consider other areas of work which are not listed here.

Multilateral and Bilateral Areas of Co-operation

It is open to two or more Members to develop bilateral and multilateral arrangements between them. While such arrangements are already in place with regard to many issues between Members, the Agreement suggests such arrangements could include, subject to the agreement of the Members concerned, mechanisms to enable consultation, co-operation and joint decision making on matters of mutual interest; and mechanisms to implement any joint decisions they may reach. These arrangements will not require the prior approval of the BIC as a whole and will operate independently of it. The development of such arrangements and progress made in work carried out under them, may be reported for information to the BIC as a whole.

Meetings

The BIC meets in different formats, including at summit level and in specific sectoral format, with each side represented by the appropriate Minister(s), or their equivalents, to pursue the BIC’s approved work programme. Officials from BIC Members meet to prepare the meetings in advance. The Council can also meet in an appropriate format to consider cross-sectoral matters.

Summit meetings

To date the Council has met thirteen times at summit level, in London in December 1999, in Dublin in November 2001, in Jersey in June 2002, in Scotland in November 2002, in Wales in November 2003, in Guernsey in November 2004, in the Isle of Man in May 2005, in London in June 2006, in Belfast in July 2007, in Dublin in February 2008, in Edinburgh in October 2008, in Cardiff in February 2009 and most recently in Jersey in November 2009.

Summit meetings will normally take place twice a year, with participating Administrations represented by the head(s) of that Administration or a substitute.

Summit meetings generally focus on a particular theme within one of the priority areas of work. Administrations with the lead in other priority areas of work report on developments in those areas to the summit meetings, and the summits also review developments in the overall work and discuss and approve new sectoral areas. Specific sectoral meetings focusing on particular areas of policy which the Council has agreed to consider also take place, at both Ministerial and official level.

Sectoral meetings

To date, 22 Ministerial meetings have taken place on the priority work areas of the BIC. In addition, numerous meetings at official level and seminars on various topics have been taking place on an ongoing basis. Further details of these meetings, including decisions taken, and lists of attendees, are available at the Communiqués section of the site.

Secretariat

The Secretariat for the BIC is provided by the British and Irish Governments. It is staffed by British and Irish officials, based in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the U.K. and the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland. The Secretariat works in co-ordination with officials of each of the other Members. Contact the Secretariat

Funding

The expenses of the Secretariat and other administrative support for the BIC are met by the British and Irish governments. BIC members, as agreed between them, provide financial support as required for its activities in sectoral areas.

Inter-parliamentary links

The Good Friday Agreement encourages “the elected institutions of the Members to develop inter-parliamentary links, possibly building on the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body.” The British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body was established in 1990 as an inter-parliamentary forum between the Irish and British Parliaments, with the objective of facilitating dialogue and co-operation between members on issues of mutual interest and concern. At its plenary meeting in February 2001, the Body unanimously agreed to expand its membership to include Representatives of BIC administrations in addition to the two sovereign governments.