The British-Irish Council
by Vernon Bogdanor
Membership of the Council, however, is not confined only to nations. The initial members of the Council will be Britain and Ireland, the devolved bodies in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and 'when established, and if appropriate, elsewhere in the United Kingdom', but also representatives of three British Crown dependencies which are not part of the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. These dependencies of course do not regard themselves as separate nations. The provision for representing devolved bodies 'elsewhere in the United Kingdom' is presumably, intended to allow for the possibility of devolution in England. Such devolution could take the form either of an English Parliament or of English regional assemblies - see the section on the British-Irish Council and England, pages 291-4 below.
The British-Irish Council is to meet at summit level, twice a year, and
in specific sectoral formats on a regular basis, with each of the participants
being represented by an appropriate minister. The Council will be primarily
consultative and might consider issues such as transport links, agriculture,
environmental and cultural issues, health, education and approaches to the
European Union. It is open to the Council to agree upon common policies,
but it cannot bind individual members who can choose to opt out or not participate
in such common policies. There will in addition be encouragement to build
complementary interparliamentary links between the members, perhaps on the
lines of the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body. |
