Northern Ireland at the Edge: What’s next after Brexit?

Northern Ireland at the Edge: What's next after Brexit? focuses on the consequences of the UK''s future relationship with Ireland, north and south. Should the UK withdraw from the EU (as announced by its government), the EU’s external border might be located in Ireland. Our first panel offers suggestions on a special status for Northern Ireland maintaining its membership in the EU or a Common Travel Area in Ireland. The second panel analyses existing relations between the EU and European States not in the EU which, among others, also avoid extensive border controls between those states (Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) and the EU.

This event is co-organised by the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Tensions at the EU Fringes (TREUP) at Queen’s University Belfast.

For the RIA, it is part of the third Constitutional Conversation 'Constitutions and these Islands: Beyond Brexit', which again constitutes a series of six conversations themed around the constitution. Part one of this conversation took place on 6 May 2016 and was entitled ‘A New Relationship? Brexit, Ireland and Northern Ireland’. The report of that conversation can be found at www.ria.ie. The complete Constitutional Conversations series has been sponsored by Mason Hayes & Curran

For TREUP this is a half-day conference under its stream Variegated Geometry, Differentiated Integration and Transnational Governance. Since this event focuses on the future relations of the UK with the European Union, the TREUP contribution is co-sponsored by the ESRC funded project “The UK 40 Years in the Union - Northern Ireland” within the larger project 'The UK in a Changing Europe'.

The Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence