The Council of the Isles: Nordic Inspirations
By Simon Partridge
The Council of the Isles - the popular name for the official British-Irish
Council (BIC) which as Strand Three of the Belfast
Agreement (10 April 1998 - Cm 3883) links the jurisdictions of both islands
- was launched in London at Lancaster House on 17 December 1999.
The meeting was seen in historic terms by both the Irish and British Prime Ministers. Bertie
Ahern said: "Never before have representatives of all the peoples of these
islands, and all our political traditions, come together in one room...we come
here in friendship and mutual respect, to consider how we can promote practical
co-operation amongst us, for the benefit of all of our peoples. Even by its
very name the Council symbolised the widening and multiplying of relationships."
While Tony Blair described the first meeting of the Council as, "an extraordinary
event, a coming together of people who have much in common, much shared history."
("The British-Irish Council: Ahern clasps the hand of history one more
time at unique London gathering", The
Irish Times, 18 December 1999)
The Irish Times in its Editorial
of the same day quoted David Trimble approvingly as describing the inauguration
as a "revolutionary political development", and said it was "an
ideas whose time has come". Indeed, it went further and said, "if
it had not been part of the Belfast Agreement it would have to be invented to
provide a forum in which the sovereign governments and devolved administrations
in Britain and Ireland can meet". The London-based Irish Post, the
principal weekly serving the Irish community in Britain, in a major feature
18 December noted that: "The Council of the Isles will take its role model
from the Nordic Council." Mr Trimble also acknowledged that the Council
was not without precedent, "as the Nordic Council provides a similar mechanism
through which co-operation for mutual benefit is agreed and co-ordinated throughout
Scandinavia". (Irish
Post,18 December 1999)
It seems timely to note the role played by the Finnish Institute in the creation
of this new trans-islands political institution. It is less than three years
since the Institute organised, with my help as a specialist in British-Irish
relations, a day-long Round Table to examine, from a comparative perspective,
whether the institutions of Nordic co-operation could provide a model for improving
Bitish-Irish relations (see subsequent report Nordic
Co-operation: A Possible Model for British- Irish Relations).
The Round Table brought together some weighty participants: Mo Mowlam's then
shadow deputy, Tony Worthington MP (she might well have come herself had she
not been ill); the No 2 at the London Irish Embassy, Philip McDonagh; the Deputy
Head of the Republic of Ireland department at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth
Office; some prominent academics – Prof Richard Kearney (Department of
Philosophy. University College Dublin), Prof Antony Alcock (Department of European
Studies, University of Ulster), Prof Harald Baldersheim (Political Science,
University of Oslo), Dr Pertti Joenniemi (Centre for Peace and Conflict Research,
Copenhagen) and Prof Uffe Ostergaard (Department of History, Aarhus University);
and Paul Gillespie, the influential deputy editor of The Irish Times.
From the point of view of the Irish and British present, one of the most startling
revelations was genesis of the Nordic Council in the "Norden Association"
established in 1918. They learnt this was a citizens' movement for the promotion
of co-operation among the Nordic peoples. While there is no direct parallel
movement in the British-Irish Isles, the density of the familial, social, cultural
and economic links between the islands is increasingly acknowledged. Thanks
to cheap air travel this is increasing quite dramatically with some 25,000 people
crossing the Irish Sea each day by boat and plane. This intermingling of peoples
was also recognised by Mr Trimble at the BIC inauguration: "We may be divided
by borders, but in our work and in our leisure, we live, work and interact with
each other as friends." (This new social geography of the islands is explored
more fully in my pamphlet The British Union State: imperial hangover or flexible
citizens' home?, chapter 3, "The new social geography of Britain and
Ireland", Catalyst,
1999, pp. 12-16) Indeed, the Nordic participants at the Round Table pointed
to even greater cultural, linguistic and institutional commonality between the
British and the Irish than among Scandinavians.
Drawing on the evident parallels between Norden and the British-Irish archipelago,
the report presciently concluded: "Noting the dense links between Britain
and Ireland, and drawing on the Nordic precedent, it seems reasonable to suggest
that in time these multiple "civic links" will lead to rapprochement
at a more political level. The Nordic Council...has a capacity for emulation
and inspiration in the realm of resolving inter-ethnic and inter-state
conflict in these islands". Ms Mowlam on a visit to Dublin not long after
she had become Secretary of State for Northern Ireland acknowledged to Richard
Kearney the influence of the report on her own thinking.
Indeed, the structure of the Council and its remit to "promote the harmonious
and mutually beneficial development of the totality of relationships among the
peoples of these islands" (Belfast
Agreement, Strand Three, para. 1, p. 14), does bear a striking resemblance
to the Nordic Council. The major difference being that the "autonomous
regions" outnumber the two sovereign governments, including as they do
the executives of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as those of
the Isle of Man (whose parliament the Tynwald, the oldest in these islands,
is Norse-derived), Jersey and Guernsey – with a possible extension to other
nine devolved Administrations in England as they develop. This would give a
potential of 17 political units, coincidentally the same number as the "autonomous
communities" which now make up the post-Franco, quasi-federal Spanish state.
Another difference is the, as yet, lack of an inter-parliamentary dimension.
Two summit level meetings will be held each year, at which participating Administrations
will be represented at head of Government or senior ministerial level. Specific
sectoral meetings could also be held attended by appropriate Ministers. In addition
to multi-lateral meetings the Agreement makes provision for meetings between
two or more members of the Council. Mr Ahern and Donald Dewar, Scotland's First
Minister, have already met.
The Belfast Agreement expressly encourages the elected institutions of the members
of the BIC to develop inter-parliamentary links. It suggests that these could
be built on the existing British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, established
in 1990. However, that Body at the moment consists of 25 parliamentarians from
each jurisdiction despite the large disparity in populations - some 59 million
for the UK compared to less than 4 million for the Irish Republic. There are
tricky issues of representation to be negotiated if it is to expand to include
other Administrations.
Again, there are lessons which can be learnt from its Nordic counterpart, which
manages to bring together parliamentarians from countries as large as Sweden
(pop. 8.6m) and as small as the Aland Islands (pop. 24,000). The Nordic Parliamentary
Council has a membership of 87 with the five large nations having around
20 members each, but weighted towards the three small autonomous regions which
each have two representatives. A similar solution for the BIC might see the
devolved English regions of the future - most of which have a larger population
than the Irish Republic - being given three or four representatives each, to
be drawn from their regional assemblies or their present indirectly-elected
regional chambers. Although, it may reassure the Irish Republic, that as Ruari
Quinn leader of the southern Irish Labour Party has pointed out ("Opportunities
for the left", Ruari Quinn, Times Change, Dublin, Autumn 1998, pp.
10-11), there may well be cross-parliament and cross-assembly alliances along
left/right lines, rather than national or regional ones. Such cross-national/regional
groupings exist within the European Parliament, the EU Committee of the Regions
and, more relevantly, the Nordic Council.
Subject to the proviso that a solution is found to the conundrum of decommissioning
paramilitary arms, a novel, connecting political and cultural space has opened
over the British-Irish archipelago after the formal political separation of
the last 78 years. In many respects the Nordic Council has been an inspiration
to bridging the gap and could continue to be so in the inter-parliamentary,
civic and cultural fields. The Finnish Institute must be congratulated for its
work in drawing this analogy to the attention of key opinion-formers just in
time for the election of the constitutionally reforming Labour government.
Simon Partridge is a political analyst and writer specialising in British-Irish
relations and the implications of devolution.