Intergovernmental and Cross-Border Civil Service Cooperation: The Good Friday Agreement and Brexit

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Etain Tannam

Published:

2020

Publisher:

Routledge

This article aims to examine the impact of the Good Friday Agreement on British–Irish intergovernmental cooperation and cross-border Irish/Northern Irish civil cooperation from 2001 to 2017. It also makes provisional observations about Brexit’s impact. British–Irish and cross-border cooperation were emphasised as integral to resolving the conflict in Northern Ireland by successive Irish governments and by the Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland. Therefore, in assessing the Good Friday Agreement’s overall significance, it is essential to examine its impact on administrative and intergovernmental cooperation. It will be shown that Good Friday agreement’s institutions for intergovernmental and East–West relations were under-utilised before Brexit and so were not equipped to deal with Brexit’s challenges in 2016–2018. However, a legally enshrined institutionalised relationship, whether by empowering the Good Friday’s institutions and/or by creating a new legal agreement, will be needed in the years ahead if and when Brexit happens.

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