Dr. Anthony Soares:

I thank Ms Hanna for those questions. I will combine some of them.. On the perceived imbalance between North-South and east-west structures, Ms Farrell's opening remarks mentioned an initiative which the Centre for Cross Border Studies managed but it was not our creation. It was a creation of civic society organisations North and South and involving civic society organisations in Scotland, England and Wales which developed the new common charter for co-operation within and between these islands. There is a willingness there. People already co-operate on an east-west basis between the island of Ireland and Great Britain so it is not just Northern Ireland civic organisations, it is organisations based in the South. We work with and are in constant dialogue with our counterparts in Great Britain. That new common charter was a kind of expression of that. It is almost an expression of the gap. In terms of governance and administration, there is the British-Irish Council that brings together the administrations of the devolved administrations, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Irish and UK Governments, but there is no equivalent for civic society. There is a gap there and the new common charter was pointing towards that. One challenge that has been mentioned is the trade and co-operation agreement and the mechanisms set up with the various committees and the intricate network or mechanisms under that which, as Dr. Ní Lochlainn pointed out, add another layer of complication for civic society organisations which have to track them all. If you are working on environmental concerns, you really do need to pay serious attention to all those committees and see how that is panning out. However, it also presents an opportunity. Within the trade and co-operation agreement there is a civic society forum that brings together the domestic advisory group for the UK and the European Union. There is an opportunity to redress the east-west balance within that domestic advisory group that the UK would set up to link the island of Ireland, and particularly Northern Ireland in this case, and Great Britain. However, it also points to another concern and complication. In co-operation, whether North-South or east-west, we have to avoid that the mechanisms under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, TCA, do not speak to the mechanisms set up under the protocol because what happens under the TCA will have an impact on the operation of the protocol. The two things have to communicate with each other. There has to be a bridge there somewhere that we are channelling information across those two very important agreements.

Yes, there are challenges around the democratic deficit but there are solutions. There are mechanisms there that the existing institutions could provide us with some of those channels. The North South Ministerial Council continues to have under its remit an EU dimension. In it, the Northern Ireland Executive meets with the Irish Government and may discuss EU policy and try to influence that development of EU policy. On Northern Ireland, we continue to have an office of the Executive in Brussels. We need to really reinvigorate that. Northern Ireland has to keep an eye on what is happening in the Commission and try to be on top of the policy that is being developed. It is not necessarily about keeping an eye on the possible draw-down of EU funds, it has to be a bit more proactive looking at the development of policy. It is also about engaging with the Irish Government's representation in Brussels as well. That is another communication aspect. There is a possibility of a democratic deficit but another way to address that is to ensure that the civic society engagement that was set up under the Good Friday Agreement is properly established in a proper Northern Ireland civic forum and an all-island consultative forum. Perhaps that could then be developed to create some all-island civic forum too.

The position paper on engagement with the UK Government, the Commission and the Northern Ireland Executive, and how the UK will discharge its responsibilities, was perhaps published in 2020. I cannot recall. I recognise that both the UK Government and European Commission have been trying to engage with civic society. We had visits by Vice-President Maroš Šefovi on his own. We also had visits by Lord Frost on his own. We have also had joint visits, as co-chairs of the joint committee, engaging with civic society organisations.

To properly address that potential democratic deficit, we have to make that engagement more structured because at present, it is the beginning of a good effort but it is ad hoc, like our group. We are called to a meeting, people express their views and then we do not actually know what happens, then another meeting is called three months later. A serious issue here is transparency. For this to work properly, we need to have agendas and minutes, and people knowing who is at the meetings. Even organisations that might not be at the table should at least know who will be at the table and they can communicate their views to those organisations. We need to work on a proper structure for civic engagement to properly address that potential democratic deficit. I will hand over to my colleagues now.