Agreement Between the Government Of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland establishing a British-Irish Council

The Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:

Having regard to Article 2 of the Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Ireland done at Belfast on 10th April 1998 (“the British-Irish Agreement”) and to the Multi-Party Agreement reached at Belfast on 10th April 1998 (“the Multi-Party Agreement”) annexed to the British-Irish Agreement;

Recalling that the participants in the multi-party negotiations pledged that they would in good faith work to ensure the success of each and every one of the arrangements to be established under the Multi-Party Agreement, and that it was accepted that “all of the institutional and constitutional arrangements - an Assembly in Northern Ireland, a North/South Ministerial Council, implementation bodies, a British-Irish Council, and a British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and any amendments to British Acts of Parliament and the Constitution of Ireland - are interlocking and interdependent and that in particular the functions of the Assembly and the North/South Council are so closely inter-related that the success of each depends on that of the other”;

Have agreed as follows:

Article 1

Under and in furtherance of Article 2 of the British/Irish Agreement, there is hereby established a British-Irish Council (“the Council”).

Article 2

The Council shall be constituted and shall operate in accordance with the provisions of the Multi-Party Agreement.

Article 3

The Members of the Council shall be responsible for the operation of the Council and shall as necessary, acting by consensus within the Council, decide on supplementary procedural arrangements relating to its operation.

Article 4

This Agreement shall enter into force on the date on which the British-Irish Agreement enters into force.

In witness whereof the undersigned, being duly authorised thereto by the respective Governments, have signed this Agreement.

Done in two originals at Dublin on the 8th day of March 1999.

For the Government of Ireland

For the Government of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland