British–Irish Council

British-Irish Council

Abbreviation	BIC
Formation	2 December 1999 (1999-12-02)
Type	Intergovernmental organisation
Legal status	British-Irish Agreement
Headquarters	Edinburgh, Scotland, UK1
Coordinates
Region served	British Isles2
Membership	Ireland United Kingdom Northern Ireland Wales Scotland Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey
Website	britishirishcouncil.org
Remarks	1 This is the location of the Standing Secretariat of the British-Irish Council. 2 Owing to a dispute over name of the archipelago, the BIC uses a number of euphemisms to avoid this term in its documents.

The British–Irish Council (BIC) is an intergovernmental organisation which aims to improve collaboration between its members in a number of areas including transport, the environment, and energy. Its membership comprises Ireland, the United Kingdom, the UK's devolved administrations for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and the governments of the Crown dependencies of the UK: Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. Because England does not have a devolved government, it is not represented on the Council as a separate entity.

It was agreed to form a Council in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement. The Council was formally established when the Agreement came into force on 2 December 1999. Its stated aim is to "promote the harmonious and mutually beneficial development of the totality of relationships among the peoples of these islands". The BIC has a standing secretariat, located in Edinburgh, Scotland, and meets in semi-annual summit session and more frequent ministerial meetings.

Membership and operation

Membership of the Council consists of the following administrations (with current heads of administrations as of April 2024):

Member Administration	Representative(s)			Title
Guernsey			Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq	Chief Minister
Isle of Man			Allan Bell, MHK	Chief Minister
Ireland			Enda Kenny, TD	Taoiseach
Jersey			Senator Ian Gorst	Chief Minister
Northern Ireland			Arlene Foster, MLA	First Minister
			Martin McGuinness, MLA	deputy First Minister
Scotland			Nicola Sturgeon, MSP	First Minister
United Kingdom			David Cameron, MP	Prime Minister
Wales			Carwyn Jones, AM	First Minister

The nine heads of government meet at summits twice per year. Additionally, there are regular meetings that deal with specific sectors and are attended by the corresponding ministers. Representatives of members operate in accordance with whatever procedures for democratic authority and accountability are in force in their respective elected legislatures.

The work of the Council is financed by members through mutual agreement as required. At the ninth meeting of the Council, it was decided that with devolved government returned to Northern Ireland that an opportune time existed "to undertake a strategic review of the Council's work programmes, working methods and support arrangements." This decision included the potential for a permanent standing secretariat, which was established in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 4 January 2012.

At its June 2010 summit, the Council decided to move forward on recommendations to enhance the relationship between it and the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA). The British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly is made up of members from the parliaments and assemblies of the same states and regions as the members of the British–Irish Council. The Council tasked its secretariat with moving this work forward in conjunction with the BIPA's secretariat.

In addition to the above members Cornwall has been a full observer member since 2010 due to the Cornish language falling under the Council's areas of work.

Work areas

The Council agrees to specific work areas for which individual members take responsibility. The Belfast Agreement suggested transport links, agriculture, environmental issues, culture, health, education and approaches to the European Union as suitable topics for early discussion. However, these work areas can be expanded or reduced as the Council decides. It is also open to the Council to make agreement on common policies. These agreements are made through consensus, although individual members may opt not to participate in implementing any of these.

The current list of work areas and the member responsible are:

• Collaborative spatial planning (Northern Ireland)
• Demography (Scotland)
• Digital inclusion (Isle of Man)
• Early years policy (Wales)
• Energy (United Kingdom - Electricity Grids, and Scotland - Marine)
• Environment (United Kingdom)
• Housing (Northern Ireland)
• Indigenous, minority and lesser-used languages (Wales)
• Misuse of Substances (drugs and alcohol) (Ireland)
• Social inclusion (Scotland and Wales)
• Transport (Northern Ireland)
• Creative Industries (Jersey)

Demography was adopted as a work area at the 2006 meeting of the Council. It was proposed by the Scottish Executive, who also took responsibility for it. During the 2007 meeting of the Council the Scottish Government further proposed that energy become a work area of the Council. Past work sector areas included knowledge economy, e-health / telemedicine and tourism.

Name of the Council

Initial suggestions for the council included the names Council of the British Isles or Council of the Isles, and the council has sometimes been known by the latter name. However, owing to sensibilities around the term British Isles, particularly in Ireland, the name British-Irish Council was agreed.

The official name of the Council is represented in minority and lesser-used languages of the council as:

• Irish: Comhairle na Breataine-na hÉireann
• Guernésiais: Conseil Britannique-Irlàndais
• Jèrriais: <phonos file="Jer-Conseil Britannique-Irlandais.ogg">Conseil Britannique-Irlandais</phonos>
• Manx: Coonceil Ghoaldagh-Yernagh
• Scottish Gaelic: Comhairle Bhreatainn-Èirinn
• Scots: Brits-Airis Cooncilcode: sco is deprecated
• Welsh: Cyngor Prydain-Iwerddon
• Cornish: Konsel Predennek-Iwerdhonek

Summits

	Date	Host	Host leader(s)	Location held
1st	17 December 1999	United Kingdom	Tony Blair	London	[1]
2nd	30 November 2001	Ireland	Bertie Ahern	Dublin	[2]
3rd	14 June 2002	Jersey	Pierre Horsfall	Saint Helier	[3]
4th	22 November 2002	Scotland	Jack McConnell	New Lanark	[4]
5th	28 November 2003	Wales	Rhodri Morgan	St Fagans National History Museum, Cardiff	[5]
6th	28 November 2004	Guernsey	Laurie Morgan	Castle Cornet	[6]
7th	20 May 2005	Isle of Man	Donald Gelling	Villa Marina, Douglas	[7]
8th	2 June 2006	United Kingdom	John Prescott	ExCeL Conference Centre, London	[8]
9th	16 July 2007	Northern Ireland	Ian Paisley Martin McGuinness	Parliament Buildings, Belfast	[9]
10th	14 February 2008	Ireland	Bertie Ahern	Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin	[10]
11th	26 September 2008	Scotland	Alex Salmond	Hopetoun House, South Queensferry	[11]
12th	20 February 2009	Wales	Rhodri Morgan	SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff	[12]
13th	13 November 2009	Jersey	Terry Le Sueur	Radisson Hotel, Saint Helier	[13]
14th	25 June 2010	Guernsey	Lyndon Trott	Fermain Valley Hotel, Saint Peter Port	[14]
15th	13 December 2010	Isle of Man	Tony Brown	Sefton Hotel, Douglas	[15]
16th	20 June 2011	United Kingdom	Nick Clegg	Lancaster House, London	[16]
17th	13 January 2012	Ireland	Enda Kenny	Dublin Castle, Dublin	[17]
18th	22 June 2012	Scotland	Alex Salmond	Stirling Castle, Stirling	[18]
19th	26 November 2012	Wales	Carwyn Jones	Cardiff Castle, Cardiff	[19]
20th	21 June 2013	Northern Ireland	Peter Robinson Martin McGuinness	Magee College, Derry~Londonderry	[20]
21st	15 November 2013	Jersey	Ian Gorst	L’Horizon Hotel, Saint Brélade	[21]
22nd	13 June 2014	Guernsey	Jonathan Le Tocq	St. Pierre Park Hotel, Saint Peter Port	[22]
23rd	28 November 2014	Isle of Man	Allan Bell	Villa Marina Complex, Douglas	[23]
24th	19 June 2015	Ireland	Enda Kenny	Dublin Castle, Dublin	[24]
25th	27 November 2015	United Kingdom	Theresa Villiers	Lancaster House, London	[25]

See also

• Council of Ireland
• North/South Ministerial Council
• British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference
• British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly

External links

• Official website