British-Irish Council (Hansard, 12 January 2000)

§ Marjorie Mowlam

The inaugural summit meeting of the British-Irish Council, established under the Good Friday Agreement, was held at Lancaster House, London on Friday 17 December 1999.

The role of the Council is to promote the harmonious and mutually beneficial development of the totality of relationships among the peoples of these islands. It will exchange information, discuss and use best endeavours to reach agreement on co-operation on matters of mutual interest within the competence of the relevant Administrations.

At its inaugural meeting the Council agreed a Memorandum on its working procedures. It adopted an initial list of issues for early discussion in the BIC and also decided which administrations would take the lead in each sectoral area:

Topic	Lead Administration
Drugs	Irish Government
Social Inclusion	Scottish Executive and Cabinet of National Assembly for Wales
Environment	British Government
Transport	Northern Ireland Executive Committee
Knowledge Economy	Jersey

In addition, the Council agreed an indicative list of other issues suitable for the Council's work, including areas which members are already taking forward bilaterally:

agricultural issues such as plant quarantine; rural development and rural depopulation; the development of renewable raw materials and energy crops; salmon fisheries; sea fisheries and aquaculture;
health issues;
regional issues: including links between cities, towns and local districts;
consideration of interparliamentary links (noting paragraph 11 of the Memorandum on Procedural Guidance);
energy issues;
cultural issues;
tourism;
sporting activity;
education issues;
approaches to EU issues;
minority and lesser-used languages;
prison and probation issues.

The next summit meeting of the Council will take place in Dublin in June 2000 and will focus on the issue of drugs.