The Impact of the European Union on Cross-Border Cooperation in Ireland and the Implications of Brexit

The EU’s decision in December 2016 to include Northern Ireland and the Irish border issue as one of the three negotiating issues in Phase One of the EU-UK Brexit negotiations, was recognition that, of all EU states, Ireland is most affected by Brexit and of all regions, Northern Ireland as a post-conflict region is particularly fragile in the face of Brexit. This paper applies integration and international relations theory to examine the impact of the European Union on cross-border and British-Irish intergovernmental cooperation from 1994 to 2015 and to assess the potential impact of Brexit on cross-border and intergovernmental cooperation. In examining the EU’s impact, the relationship between the EU and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement is assessed. The paper sets out neo-functionalist and intergovernmentalist hypotheses about the impact of the EU on cross-border cooperation and also applies neo-functionalist hypotheses about dis-integration to assess the implications of Brexit for the border. On the one hand neo-functionalism argues that common economic interests upgraded by the European Commission lead to increased cross-border economic and political cooperation and that EU membership itself contributed to the peace process in Northern Ireland, by creating a normative framework and economic funding to underpin peace. On the other hand, intergovernmentalism emphasises the role of Irish and UK governments in incentivising cooperation through a political carrot and stick strategy. In conclusion it is argued the main factor in determining Brexit’s impact on the Irish border, is whether British-Irish intergovernmental cooperation continues, but Brexit itself may undermine such cooperation. The research draws on semi structured interviews conducted with Irish, EU, English and Northern Irish officials and business people from 2016 to 2017 and on primaryreports, drawing on research for the author’s forthcoming book, British-Irish Relations in the 21st Century (2019, Oxford, Oxford University Press).