The Good Friday Agreement may only be changed in Northern Ireland with the consent of the various communities, former Prime Minister Tony Blair warned.
The ex-Labour leader, who played a pivotal role in negotiating the historic deal in 1998, said there was a case for reforming Stormont’s decentralized power-sharing structures given the regularity of governance collapses in the region in the 25 years after that.
The arrangements include a system based on mutual veto rights, allowing blocs of unionist and nationalist MLAs to stop movements that would otherwise gain majority support and, in extreme circumstances, bring down the institutions and prevent them from functioning.
The DUP is currently exercising its veto to block Stormont in protest of post-Brexit trade arrangements.
In 2017, Sinn Féin collapsed the ministerial executive amid uproar over a failed green energy scheme.
The current UK government has faced calls from some of the DUP’s main rivals, most notably the Alliance Party, to change the rules to allow the majority of MLAs to return to work.
However, in an interview marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday deal, Mr Blair warned against any attempt to change the veto system to circumvent the DUP stance and restore power-sharing. Northern Ireland.
“People often ask me if there is any reason to review the Good Friday Agreement, the institutions, the way a party can essentially veto the process, and I always tell people there is of course a reason to review it and, over time, maybe that review process will yield a change,” he said.
“But I don’t think you can make a change that will work if you don’t bring the communities together.
And one thing I’ve learned about Northern Ireland is that there’s a difference between the ideal answer and the realistic answer.
“The ideal answer could be to change the entire system, for example by choosing ministers or getting the executive to work.
“But the realistic truth is that if you acted, say, in direct opposition to a large part of union opinion, it wouldn’t work, it just wouldn’t work.
“So yes, in an ideal world, Northern Ireland’s politics would be historically different, but they’re not, you’re in the real world and in the real world, of course, I think we should continue to evaluate the agreement. time.
“But I don’t think it’s possible to change it unless you get the key elements of Northern Ireland politics to agree.”
He said change cannot just be “top-down” and must include an element of “bottom-up” endorsement by grassroots communities.
“The basic agreement essentially, which is fair treatment for all parts of the community in exchange for the principle of consent (on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland), I think will always be.
“But how you adjust the way you manage settings, the different parts, of course that can change, can be adjusted over time, but it’s going to have to be in consultation,” he said.
Reflecting on the Good Friday negotiations, the former prime minister said the 1998 leaders offered a lesson to the current generation.
“It was agonizing[the conversational process]but it’s an interesting reflection of politics that it works best when leaders are willing to say things that are uncomfortable even to their own supporters.”
While the deal largely ended violence in Northern Ireland, Mr Blair acknowledged that there is more work to be done to achieve genuine reconciliation.
“One of the things I’ve learned about the peace process is that you can make an agreement, and you can create a legal framework, and you can make the reforms and pass the laws, but that’s not the same as two communities fighting each other. confidence,” he said. said.
“And I think it just takes time, it takes quite a lot of time.”
He added: “I think there is still a lot of reconciliation to be done.
“But at least if there is peace and if we return to some form of political stability, I think you have the right conditions for that reconciliation.”