The future of north-south cooperation

This paper emphasises the central role of the Good Friday Agreement as the continuing blueprint for future political developments. The North-South bodies established under its auspices have worked quietly but efficiently for the good of all, North and South. Both parts of the island contribute to the work of the bodies, and both parts gain from it. The work of the bodies is complemented by other initiatives in North-South cooperation. Indeed, long-term economic planning implies the need to consider the whole island for purposes of infrastructural planning. There have been difficulties in the political process, but the common ground achieved by parties as diverse as the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin is more remarkable than the set of issues that divides them, and suggests a potential for positive political development in the longer term.