Dr. Anthony Soares:

On behalf of the Centre for Cross Border Studies, I thank the Chairman and members of this committee for the invitation to meet on the subject of supporting communities and sustaining small rural business within the Border region after Brexit. As the Chairman referred to, even as we rapidly approach the date on which the United Kingdom will officially leave the European Union, it is still unclear as to what the scale and nature of the impact will be on Border communities and businesses. What is at stake here is not only the economic future of communities and small rural businesses in the Border region but also, if not properly mitigated, is social cohesion within the Border region after Brexit.

Brexit will not alter the fact that the United Kingdom will remain a co-guarantor, along with Ireland, of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. That means that, in terms of maintaining the conditions for North-South co-operation that will assist in supporting communities and small rural businesses in the Border region post Brexit, the UK Government must not shirk that responsibility to a non-operational Northern Ireland Assembly or Executive.

To support communities and small rural businesses in the Border region fully post Brexit, it is essential that EU funding for North-South and cross-Border co-operation is secured for the next programming period. However, we, the Centre for Cross Border Studies, are concerned that although the European Commission's fact sheet on the protocol on Ireland-Northern Ireland in the withdrawal agreement refers to the "continuation of PEACE and INTERREG for Northern Ireland and the border regions of Ireland beyond 2020 under a single programme PEACE PLUS", the political declaration on future UK-EU relations refers simply to the UK and EU's "shared commitment to delivering a future PEACE PLUS programme to sustain work on reconciliation and a shared future in Northern Ireland". There is no reference here to the Border counties of Ireland. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that legal guarantees are given that any future PEACE PLUS programme will encompass the Border counties of Ireland and will be a significant contribution, of at least 15% of any total budget, to cross-Border co-operation.

Given the potential of the current LEADER programme to support cross-Border co-operation activities in relation to rural development, it is also important that a similar support is provided in the post-Brexit context, either as part of any proposed PEACE PLUS programme or as a discrete programme supportive of rural development as one of the areas of North-South co-operation identified as part of the North-South co-operation mapping exercise.

Those are some of the headline issues in supporting communities and small rural businesses in the Border region following the UK's withdrawal from the European Union. Many imponderables still exist due to the unstable political landscape in Westminster, meaning that we cannot be sure of the kind of Brexit we will be left with, or whether we will have any Brexit at all. Whatever the case, I assure the committee that the Centre for Cross Border Studies will remain committed to supporting, promoting and advocating for cross-Border co-operation as part of the ongoing process of peace and reconciliation, and as a means of providing practical benefits to communities and businesses on both sides of the Border.