Northern Ireland under devolution: The challenge of institutional adaptation to EU policy formulation

Article abstract:

In the late 1990s when the United Kingdom embarked on a programme of constitutional reform and decentralisation of power through its programme of devolution, ostensibly one of the major non-devolved areas was international affairs and relations with the European Union. There is a growing literature on relations between the UK and the European Union, but much less on relationship between the regions, central government and the EU. This article aims to redress the balance and focus on the interaction between Northern Ireland's new institutions of governance and the EU. It examines the EU dimension to the new devolution arrangements heralded by the Belfast Agreement, considers how the new institutions (principally the Executive and Assembly) have responded to meet this new European challenge and analyses how far devolution has led to a fundamental change in relations between Northern Ireland and the European Union.