A new organization that enhanced business and educational ties between Britain and Northern Ireland, established as part of the agreement that reinstated powersharing in Stormont, is set to convene for the first time on Tuesday.
UK cabinet minister Michael Gove will chair the inaugural session of the East-West Council at Dover House in London. The British government’s Safeguarding the Union command paper, released in late January after months of negotiations with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), promised the creation of this forum.
The paper persuaded the DUP to end its two-year boycott of powersharing at Stormont, which it had imposed in protest against post-Brexit trading barriers affecting trade from Britain to Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill, DUP deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, and several other ministers from the Stormont Executive will attend the council meeting.
According to the Safeguarding the Union command paper, the council aims to enhance cooperation between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK to address common challenges and seize shared opportunities. It will include representatives from the political, business, and education sectors.
The council’s priorities include addressing economic inactivity, improving east-west trade flows, attracting international investment to Northern Ireland, and strengthening institutional connectivity and professional development by leveraging academic and skills expertise across Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
This new body will issue an annual report identifying actionable steps for businesses, educational institutions, or governments to enhance growth in Northern Ireland and Britain.
Critics, particularly from nationalist circles, have raised concerns about creating an additional east-west body outside the terms of the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998, which established several political bodies to improve relations both within Ireland and between Ireland and Great Britain.
Ahead of the inaugural meeting, Michael Gove emphasized the importance of the East-West Council in restoring devolved government to Northern Ireland. He reiterated the British government’s commitment to collaboration with the Northern Ireland Executive and partners across the UK to address shared challenges and opportunities, including those with an east-west dimension.
