In recent days, both Mr Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern have travelled to Belfast to take part in the talks, and the agreement was finally announced by George Mitchell on the afternoon of 10 April 1998. The agreement establishes a framework for the establishment and number of institutions in three “policy areas”. Fundamentally, the agreement commits the parties to democratic and peaceful methods of resolving political problems, uses their influence to bring about the closure of paramilitary groups and normalises security in Northern Ireland. Issues of sovereignty, civil and cultural rights, weapons dismantling, demilitarization, justice and law enforcement were at the heart of the agreement. The direct London regime ended in Northern Ireland when power was formally transferred to the new Northern Ireland Assembly, the North-South Council of Ministers and the British-Irish Council when the original regulations of the British-Irish Agreement entered into force on 2 December 1999. [15] [16] [17] Article 4(2) of the United Kingdom-Ireland Agreement (Agreement between the British and Irish Governments implementing the Belfast Agreement) requires both governments to inform each other in writing of compliance with the conditions for the entry into force of the United Kingdom-Ireland Agreement. entry into force should take place upon receipt of the last of the two notifications. [18] The British government agreed to attend a televised ceremony at Iveagh House in Dublin, the Irish Foreign Office. Peter Mandelson, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, took part early on 2 December 1999. The position paper addresses, inter alia, the avoidance of a hard border, North-South cooperation between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the birthright of all inhabitants of Northern Ireland (as defined in the Agreement) and the common travel area.

[31] [32] Anyone born in Northern Ireland who is therefore entitled to an Irish passport under the Good Friday Agreement can retain EU citizenship even after Brexit. [33] As part of the European Union`s Brexit negotiating directives, the UK was asked to convince other EU members that these issues had been raised in order to move to the second phase of Brexit negotiations. .