Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 29 March 2023 - Brussels

3. Formal sitting - Ceremony on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement

  President. – Good afternoon, nice to see you all. Can I please ask you to take your seats? We have an important anniversary to mark, dear colleagues. We have with us the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission for this momentous occasion.

We will begin today’s plenary session by marking the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. Today, we highlight the continued significance of an agreement that is grounded in peace and reconciliation – an agreement that is helping to instil harmony between people. I invite you first to view a short video to mark this important moment.

(A video was shown in the Chamber)

Dear friends, there are few examples in European history of a people’s peace agreement such as the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement – brokered by the people of all of Northern Ireland, aided by the governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland, and supported by the European Union and the United States of America.

Endorsed by people on both parts of the island of Ireland, agreeing to lift borders that divided communities. Defended by the people during post-Brexit uncertainty, when the importance of the agreement became even more relevant.

Time and again, over the years, the European Union and this Parliament reiterated its unwavering support for the hard-earned peace process on the island of Ireland. Going forward, the 2023 Windsor Framework lays down arrangements for the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland. It will charter a new way forward towards ending post-Brexit uncertainties.

Dear Europeans, the European peace project was borne from the ashes of World Wars. It held the ambition of bringing peoples together in the hope of lasting peace and prosperity. Nobel Peace Prize laureate John Hume said in this House, and as we just heard in the video: ‘What we all have to learn is what the peoples of Europe learned. Difference is not something we should be engaged in conflict about. It is something we should respect.’

Europe is a place of reconciliation where everyone’s voice counts. This European Parliament is a place where peoples of Europe have come together, setting aside past resentment to talk and to listen. The transcripts of the dialogue held in this Parliament between former Members of the European Parliament from Northern Ireland is evidence of that willingness to set aside animosity and that willingness to talk and to listen. And this House evidently provided a platform for this dialogue for peace.

Twenty-five years ago, Members of the European Parliament welcomed the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement with warm and heartfelt admiration and with gratitude, because Northern Ireland’s people reminded all Europeans of the fundamental values on which Europe’s peace and prosperity lay. Over 25 years of peace, people’s daily lives in Northern Ireland have been transformed. They no longer live with the threat of violence. All-island cooperation is everywhere to be seen.

And yet, this Belfast/Good Friday Agreement still needs nurturing. Issues relating to social justice and civic cooperation were central to the Agreement. Civil activists and promotors of peace in Northern Ireland know that commitment to civil and political rights is key.

The Agreement restored self-government to Northern Ireland on the basis of power-sharing and all of us here believe in parliamentary democracy. We will do what we can to promote that concept and I look forward to being able to exchange ideas with parliamentarians in Northern Ireland.

As that young woman in the video said, ‘if the Good Friday Agreement were to go, aye, it probably might be quite scary’. And that is why we are marking the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in this House of European democracy today. Because preserving peace is so important and listening to all sides respectfully is key.

  Charles Michel, President of the European Council. – Madam President of Parliament, Madam President of the Commission, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, Alexandra Park sits in the heart of North Belfast. During the Troubles, this park was sliced in two by a wall – like a dark scar winding through the green landscape. A ‘peace wall’, it was called, because like the dozens of other ‘peace walls’ erected over four decades, it was built to stop the fighting. These walls divided two communities that shared the same language but that would not use that language to talk to each other. For decades, they fought. For decades, they kept their children apart.

Ladies and gentlemen, 25 years ago, the Good Friday Agreement was signed: a remarkable achievement that took real political leadership and visionary leaders that did not fear compromise. It broke the cycle of decades of violence and ushered in peace, stability and reconciliation. This agreement took 700 days of negotiations by men and women of courage, along with the determination of our American friends. The UK and Ireland’s membership in the EU – and later in the single market – provided common ground on which to build a lasting peace, by bringing people together and by removing the physical, economic and psychological barriers between people.

The EU was crucial to reaching the Good Friday Agreement and has been essential to ensure its survival throughout all these years. In fact, the Good Friday Agreement also echoes back to another major moment in history, 41 years earlier: the Treaty of Rome; this founding treaty of our European Union that aspired, after the tragedy of World War II, to build up a spirit that unites and to draw down borders that divide.

Peace in Ireland and European integration are staked in the same ideal, exploiting the richness of diversity rather than sowing division. The Good Friday Agreement is also an important reminder that we are all capable of feeling strong emotion and connection to more than one nation. This is not something to fear: multiple identities are part of human nature and we should keep this in mind across our regions that are on their own journeys of peace, reconciliation and cooperation within our European family.

Ladies and gentlemen, the ‘peace wall’ in Alexandra Park still stands today, but this symbol of division now has a gate, with families crossing between the two sides. What was once a symbol of fear and separation is now, today, a sign of peace, progress and common future. It is an open door to greater tolerance, respect and diversity. This was the spirit and energy that forged the Good Friday Agreement 25 years ago, and this is the spirit and energy we still need today to protect these hard-won gains and to build a lasting peace for the children on the island of Ireland and everywhere in Europe.

  Ursula von der Leyen, President of the Commission. – Madam President Metsola, dear Roberta, President Michel, dear Charles, honourable Members, 25 years ago, the leaders of Northern Ireland, Ireland and the UK made the impossible come true. For years, every attempt to broker peace had failed. At Easter in 1998, when a new proposal was put on the table, the talks were once again on the verge of collapse. It felt like Northern Ireland could return to violence. It took the courage and the vision of some extraordinary leaders to cross the finish line.

But this success was not only made at the negotiating table in the places such as Hillsborough Castle. At the time, outside the castle, a small crowd of schoolchildren had gathered, with their parents and their teachers. They came from Catholic and Protestant families, and they carried balloons and signs with two simple words: ‘Peace, please’. It was a stark reminder of what was at stake in those negotiations. Not only different identities, ideals and allegiance, but the future of the children in Northern Ireland. The Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement has delivered on the simple demand of those children, with 25 years of peace, 25 years of possibilities.

So today, we celebrate brave leaders, like John Hume and David Trimble, who came from opposing sides and ended up sharing a Nobel Peace Prize. But we also celebrate all the peace-loving people of Ireland and Northern Ireland – the unsung heroes of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement.

The Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement not only ended 30 years of the Troubles, it also opened a new era of cooperation. As the first line of the agreement says, it is ‘the opportunity for a new beginning’ for the two communities and the two islands, and it was indeed a new beginning.

In these 25 years, Northern Ireland has taken giant steps forward, also thanks to European support. Checkpoints have been replaced with sports venues and schools. Just recently, a wall was torn down in West Belfast to make room for an EU-funded community centre. Of course, many other walls still stand, not all wounds have healed. While a peace deal can be signed with the stroke of a pen, reconciliation is always the work of generations.

But, as one of Northern Ireland’s greatest sons, Van Morrison, said, ‘For the healing, go on with the dreaming’. And this is what makes the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement so important. Beyond the letter and the spirit, there is a promise of a better future for all the people of Northern Ireland.

Sadly, the Brexit referendum raised new challenges for both the letter and the spirit and the promise of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement. Since 2016, everyone in our Union has worked hard to avoid that Brexit became an obstacle on the path of reconciliation on the island of Ireland. This journey was never smooth. But our goal is now finally in sight. As a set of joint solutions under the Withdrawal Agreement, the Windsor framework continues to support the letter, the spirit and the promise of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement. It preserves our precious Single Market. It preserves Northern Ireland’s integral place in the United Kingdom’s internal market. And, crucially, it preserves the foundations of peace by avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.

I want to thank the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, for his can-do approach. Together, we are staying true to the Good Friday promise that never again will there be a hard border on the island of Ireland.

All of this is an immense opportunity for the people of Northern Ireland. They will have the same food on their supermarket shelves and the same access to medicines as in the rest of the UK, and they will continue to have unique access to the Single Market, that is, the most powerful driver of growth all across our continent. Everyone in Northern Ireland will benefit from this, whether they identify as Irish, British, Northern Irish, European or a combination of all these. So I can only hope that rationality will once again prevail, just like it did 25 years ago.

Honourable Members, thanks to the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement, there’s a whole generation of young people in Northern Ireland who were born and raised in peace, who will not accept to go back to the problems of the past, who just want to live a full life. They understand better than anyone else that peace and prosperity were not achieved once and for all on that Good Friday Agreement, a quarter of a century ago. Peace and prosperity must be re-won, day after day, generation after generation.

So today, we do not just gather for commemoration, but for a new commitment to keep working for reconciliation in Northern Ireland, in spite of all setbacks, for the next 25 years and way beyond. The UK may have left our Union, but peace remains the European promise.

Long live Europe.

  David McAllister, on behalf of the PPE Group. – Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, as just rightly described by our three Presidents, the troubles in Northern Ireland were one of the darkest chapters in recent European history.

For the longest time, deep historic rifts between unionists and nationalists made any negotiations for lasting peace seemingly impossible. With the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement, we are celebrating a historic development that remains essential to peace and indeed reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

Dear colleagues, the true test of political leadership comes when it takes courage to lead against popular belief, and the peace process on the island of Ireland has known more than one courageous political leader. The Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement demonstrates it is possible to achieve great good in politics. Ever since 1998, we, as the European Union, we have worked alongside our UK and Irish partners to implement exactly this agreement. It was exactly in this spirit that we conducted the Brexit negotiations amid the rise of old questions of sovereignty and national identity. Preventing a hard border on the island of Ireland was and is an essential priority for the European Union.

Particularly in times of serious geopolitical challenges, a stable cooperation with the United Kingdom is so crucial. Much more unites us than divides us. As just mentioned by the Commission President, the Windsor Framework: with this Windsor Framework, we have found practical solutions to the challenges in the implementation of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland while maintaining the integrity of our EU single market. Indeed, the Windsor Framework offers a united way forward, but it also honours the historic achievements we are commemorating today. Together with our UK partners, let us use this momentum to walk the talk and to implement the solutions reached on paper.

  Pedro Silva Pereira, on behalf of the S&D Group. – Madam President, for the last 25 years, the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement has delivered on its promise of peace and stability for Northern Ireland. Peace is not a minor issue, as we all know, and we should recall this today more than ever. 25 years of peace in Northern Ireland is a remarkable political achievement that indeed deserves proper celebration, so that we all can praise the progress made and the parties involved can renew their commitment to working together for a peaceful future in Northern Ireland.

Carefully negotiated and successfully concluded in 1988 under a Labour government led by Tony Blair, with the full engagement of remarkable Irish political leaders, the Good Friday Agreement made all the difference for the people in Northern Ireland. Instead of violence, peace; instead of confrontation, dialogue, compromise and co-operation; instead of struggles for domination and power, cross-community power sharing. Challenging resentment and disbelief, the Good Friday Agreement has worked for the last 25 years and still sets the framework for new ambitions for the future of the island of Ireland.

The European Union is not just a mere spectator of the Good Friday Agreement; it is an engaged party in this international agreement, fully committed to delivering its promises in all its parts. That is why it was always clear for the European Union that, despite Brexit, and while safeguarding the integrity of the European Union’s single market, we had to keep the promise of not having a hard border again between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

This has been, since the beginning, the goal of the commonly agreed Northern Ireland Protocol, just as it is now the goal of the recently agreed Windsor framework. For us it is clear that the time has come to turn the page of this absurd confrontation against the EU. More than that, we need immediately to see power-sharing coming back to Northern Ireland so that after 25 years of peace, we can build 25 years of prosperity for the people in Northern Ireland.

  Barry Andrews, on behalf of the Renew Group. – President Metsola, President Michel, President von der Leyen and colleagues, today’s ceremony is very, very welcome. Sometimes we under-sell the EU’s role in sustaining peace in Northern Ireland – a role I would argue is even more significant than that of the United States.

The peace in Northern Ireland is, in my view, one of the European Union’s greatest achievements. It was the EU that provided the financial support through structural funds and the PEACE programme. It was the EU and its single market that made borders less relevant. It was the EU that provided the context and arena for closer relations that otherwise would have been impossible.

In May 2007, Ian Paisley, a former MEP, contacted the Irish Government to request that José Manuel Barroso would come to Belfast to be in attendance at Paisley’s first official meeting with Martin McGuinness. The presence of the EU was visually important to what otherwise would have been an awkward moment for Paisley.

And it was the EU that provided the symbolism of peace-building. As the 1952 Coal and Steel Treaty aimed at ‘building a broader and deeper community among peoples long divided by bloody conflict’, SDLP MEP and Nobel Prize-winner, John Hume, used this language as a framework to ensure that the EU would play a role – much to the irritation of the UK Government.

However, ultimately the greatest credit goes to the people of Northern Ireland. Now, after an era of peace, 25 years later, the tantalising prize of prosperity awaits. For the next generation, the EU must continue to play a role and, in my view, support reform of the Good Friday Agreement. Presently, the cost of staying out of the Northern Ireland Executive is too low, and for too long bad behaviour has been rewarded.

While the Brexit negotiations have been agonising – and in this respect, I’d like to pay tribute to both Michel Barnier and Maroš Šefčovič for all of their perseverance – the Good Friday Agreement and the EU’s role in it can only be properly honoured by staying the course and maintaining support for a speedy return of the Northern Ireland Executive and the dawn of a new era in Northern Ireland.

  Terry Reintke, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Madam President, dear colleagues, today we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The Good Friday Agreement came after long conflict. 3 500 people have lost their lives in decades marked by violence, by insecurity and by hatred. This agreement is a symbol of committed peace-building, and 25 years later we acknowledge the hard work, the political will and the commitment that was put into making it happen by so many people.

Colleagues, we all know that Brexit has shaken the political situation in Northern Ireland and made many of the questions that still need resolving more difficult, and this is not going to go away for a while. But, with the Windsor Framework, the European Union and the UK have recently shown that constructive negotiations based on trust and understanding have a good outcome even in difficult situations. We will continue to do everything in our power to secure peace in Northern Ireland and to support the Good Friday Agreement.

Let’s also never forget, peace is not only the absence of armed conflict. Safeguarding fundamental rights of all citizens is a crucial part of a sustainable peace, and that is why the European Convention on Human Rights has played such an important role for peace—building in Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement. That is why defending the European Convention on Human Rights is absolutely crucial, especially now that we see it being put under attack.

Colleagues, the European Union was built on promoting peace. On the ruins of violent conflict, millions of people came together. So let us not only remember the great effort it took to achieve peace and the Good Friday Agreement, but let’s build on this spirit for the future – for a peaceful, a just and a democratic Ireland, United Kingdom and Europe built on understanding, on trust and on human rights.

  Geert Bourgeois, namens de ECR-Fractie. – Voorzitters, collega’s, na jarenlange politieke vijandigheid, onrust en geweld zorgt het Goede Vrijdagakkoord al 25 jaar voor een periode van vrede en democratie, democratie als middel om politieke doelstellingen te bereiken.

Wat volgde was stabiliteit met machtsdeling tussen ooit gezworen vijanden.

De Brexit bracht echter weer onrust en spanningen met zich mee. Tot elke prijs moest worden voorkomen dat het Goede Vrijdagakkoord onderuitgehaald werd.

Na lange en aanslepende discussies is uiteindelijk met het Windsor-akkoord een goede regeling getroffen over het protocol voor Noord-Ierland.

Dank aan alle betrokken partijen, ook aan onze onderhandelaars, die 25 jaar later – opnieuw – over de eigen schaduw konden springen.

Politieke wil en verantwoordelijk leiderschap van de onderhandelaars bij het Goede Vrijdagakkoord gaven een hele generatie de kans om op te groeien in vrede en welvaart, de essentie van wat de EU nu al 75 jaar voor óns betekent.

Mijn fractie hoopt oprecht dat, in de geest van het Goede Vrijdagakkoord, als kostbare erfenis van verzoening, alle betrokken partijen het nieuwe Windsor-akkoord aangrijpen:

als een startpunt dat opnieuw kansen biedt aan burgers en bedrijven om een welvarende toekomst uit te bouwen in Noord-Ierland,

als de aanzet om de democratische instellingen in Noord-Ierland opnieuw te laten functioneren, en

als het scharniermoment voor een hernieuwde positieve samenwerking tussen het VK en de EU, en dat op –hopelijk – veel meer domeinen dan nu het geval is.

  Marco Campomenosi, a nome del gruppo ID. – Signora Presidente, onorevoli colleghi, io il 10 aprile 1998 ero un giovane militante e seguivo la questione irlandese con passione. Con l'accordo del Venerdì Santo ho imparato una lezione che porto dentro di me, che riguarda anche il tentativo necessario di comprendere le ragioni dell'altro quando ci si pone rispetto a un tema politico. In questo caso, poi, parliamo di un accordo che è servito a terminare decenni di spargimento di sangue nel nostro continente.

È per questo infatti che, tra gli appelli che sono già arrivati nei giorni scorsi, sottolineo quello delle Chiese cristiane, proprio perché la religione è stata usata da ambo le parti in alcune fasi del conflitto per renderlo più aspro. Quindi il loro appello, secondo me, è uno dei più importanti.

Ricordo bene come in questi venticinque anni l'accordo si sia dimostrato in parte anche fragile, ma una fragilità che è sempre stata nell'ambito di una discussione o, perché no, di un conflitto politico che non ha mai più visto parlare le armi, di un dibattito politico come nelle democrazie si dovrebbe fare, un dibattito che deve restare solo politico.

L'anniversario dei venticinque anni oggi giunge in maniera opportuna perché, come ha ricordato la Presidente della Commissione, il Regno Unito è giunto a un accordo con Bruxelles che, credo, favorirà commercio e sviluppo e, in questo senso, spero che quest'Aula, nei prossimi mesi e nei prossimi anni, possa cessare di avere nei confronti di Londra quell'atteggiamento spesso ostile che deriva ancora dal non aver accettato il risultato della Brexit.

Credo che in quest'anno la crisi geopolitica che stiamo vivendo, non solo in Ucraina e in altre parti del mondo, ci abbia insegnato che il rapporto che le nostre capitali hanno con Londra è basato su valori, sull'adesione a organismi internazionali e sulla lotta al terrorismo internazionale, che superano ogni possibile divisione e lontananza.

Però è chiaro che i nostri dibattiti spesso qui sono retorici, ma gli eventi sono il risultato di ogni periodo storico. Ogni epoca ha i suoi protagonisti. Il lavoro di donne e di uomini è ciò che determina, poi, il raggiungimento di obiettivi politici. Per questo credo che nelle nostre attività di politici sia importante prendere anche esempio da chi venticinque anni fa ha saputo, in Irlanda e nel Regno Unito, lavorare per la pace, ponendo fine a decenni di conflitto.

Ecco, se posso fare un appello, cerchiamo tutti noi di essere all'altezza di chi ci ha preceduto, degli uomini che hanno fatto grande il nostro continente, per conseguire obiettivi di pace, di benessere e di libertà in tutti gli scenari.

  Chris MacManus, on behalf of The Left Group. – A Uachtaráin, it is only right that this house celebrates the Good Friday Agreement and the 25 years of peace and progress it has brought to the island of Ireland. This historic agreement put in place a new constitutional framework in the north of Ireland that would finally guarantee equality, justice and human rights.

The Good Friday Agreement is a peace process and a political process. It’s a living, breathing document. It is a framework which guarantees that the people of Ireland – north and south – will decide whether to unite or whether the North remains tied to Britain. My hope is that, within this decade, the people will be asked to be part of a new Ireland – a modern, forward-looking society based on peace, equality and social progress within the European Union. The future of the whole island is one where we work together for the benefit of all.

Over the years, most of the problems have stemmed from Tory Governments’ failure to act – as the Agreement says they should – with rigorous impartiality. A continued failure to uphold the Agreement. Consistently taking one political side does nobody any favours. It merely delays the progress that we know must happen.

To those who reject the very principles of the Good Friday Agreement, I have a simple message: equality benefits everyone. We should be able to move beyond seeing our neighbours as our enemies. Attempts to deny rights to different groups of people – marriage equality, reproductive rights, language rights – damage the economic and social cohesion of the North. We should all be working together for the benefit of all the people, which is why the Executive in the North must be established without delay. Building an economy that benefits everyone; building a society that works for all, where no one is left behind.

That’s why it is important that this House celebrates the 25th anniversary. And I have no doubt that this House and the EU will continue to play an important role for the next 25 years as the Good Friday Agreement embarks upon its next chapter.

  President. – Thank you very much, Mr MacManus, thank you to all the colleagues.