The 19th British-Irish Council Summit took place at Cardiff Castle, Wales on 26th November 2012. The meeting was chaired by the First Minister of Wales, Rt. Hon. Carwyn Jones AM.
The Summit brought together representatives from the UK and Irish Governments, the devolved administrations of the Scottish and Welsh Governments and Northern Ireland Executive, the Government of the Isle of Man and the States of Jersey and Guernsey.
The Council held substantive discussions on the current economic conditions in the different Member Administrations and the importance of infrastructure developments to support economic growth. The Council also discussed the importance of Early Years Policy in creating strong foundations for children and families to thrive and recognising the need to move from curative to preventative models of service delivery in order to deliver better solutions and outcomes for individuals as well as generating better value for money.
The Council welcomed the wide breadth of activities underway in the different BIC sectoral groups and recognising the social, health, economic and other challenges posed in all Member Administrations by the use and misuse of alcohol, the Council agreed to expand and rename the Misuse of Drugs BIC sectoral group to form a new Misuse of Substances BIC Sectoral Group that will include alcohol as a broader topic for collaboration and cooperation.
Read the full Summit communiqué here
The British-Irish Council was created under Strand Three of the Agreement reached at the Multi-Party Talks on Northern Ireland on Friday 10 April 1998 to “promote the harmonious and mutually beneficial development of the totality of relationships among the people of these islands”. It was formally established by an Agreement signed by the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Ireland on 8 March 1999, which came into force on 2 December 1999.
