Sinn Féin policy paper to urge special status within EU for North

Sinn Féin will call for the North to be given special status within the European Union which would allow it access to the EU single market and also to €800 million each year in funding.

The party will publish a new policy paper today which makes a case for the North to achieve “designated special status” within the EU.

It will argue for a status that is not dissimilar to that enjoyed by 25 overseas countries and territories. None are members of the EU in their own right but all are linked to Denmark, Britain, France and the Netherlands; all benefit from access to the single market and other entitlements. The UK has 12 overseas countries and territories with this status.

The Sinn Féin paper argues for an inverse of the scenario affecting Greenland and Denmark. The former, a Danish territory, voted in a referendum in 1985 to leave the EU while Denmark remained a member. Greenland currently enjoys an overseas countries and territories status.

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"We are in uncharted territory since no member state has left the EU before," according to the document, which has been seen by The Irish Times.

"Given there is already a recognition at EU level of the special circumstances that pertain on the island of Ireland it is an entirely rational position to argue for the North to extend this to designated special status within the EU."

Westminster

A senior Sinn Féin adviser said such a status would not affect the current constitutional position, where under the Northern Ireland Act of 1998, power is rooted in Westminster.

However, the mechanics of how its status as part of a sovereign UK outside the EU the could be reconciled with the special status within the EU is not spelled out in any detail at his stage.

“In order to achieve this,” the document has stated, “it will need to be part of the upcoming political negotiations and common agreement by the member states, of which the Irish State is one of 27 members.”

The party argues that special status would protect the peace process, enable a continuation of access to the EU single market, allow the island of Ireland remain part of the common travel area; maintain all EU funding streams as well as protecting EU access to employment, social security and healthcare.

At present, Northern Ireland annually receives €400 million in EU funding for agriculture; €187 million for structural and investment funds; and €316 million in peace funding.

The party also argues that many of the institutions which deal with sensitive issues such as Parades Commissions and the Policing Boards are grounded in EU human rights legislation.

Any dilution of those powers would undermine all those institutions, it argues.