A ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement is organised during the plenary session in the European Parliament, in Brussels. The GFA, also known as the Belfast Agreement, was signed on 10 April 1998 by the British and Irish governments, and confirmed by referendums in Ireland and Northern Ireland in May the same year. The agreement established devolved political power-sharing structures for the nationalist and unionist communities in Northern Ireland, and brought the 30-year period of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, known as The Troubles, to an end. Statement by Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission. The transcription is the result of an automatic process. Please, check against delivery.

Brussels

statement

plenary session

ceremony

EU - Ireland (T)

peace process in Northern Ireland (T)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

Ceremony on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement: Statement by Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Thank you. President Metsola, dear Roberta, President Michel, dear Charles. Honourable members. 25 years ago, the leaders of Northern Ireland, Ireland and the UK made the impossible come true. For years, every attempt to broker peace had failed. At Easter in 1998, when a new proposal was put on the table, the talks were once again on the verge of collapse. It felt like Northern Ireland could return to violence.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, It took the courage and the vision of some extraordinary leaders to crush across the finish line. But this success was not only made at the negotiating table and the places such as Hillsborough Castle. At the time, outside the castle, a small crowd of schoolchildren had gathered. With their parents and the teachers, they came from Catholic and Protestant families. And they carried balloons and signs with two simple words. Peace, please.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, It was a stark reminder of what was at stake in those negotiations, not only different identities, ideals and allegiance, but the future of the children in Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Belfast Agreement has delivered on the simple demand of those children with 25 years of peace, 25 years of possibilities. So today we celebrate brave leaders like John Hume and David Trimble, who came from opposing sides and ended up sharing a Nobel Peace Prize.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, But we also celebrate all the peace loving people of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the unsung heroes of the Good Friday Belfast Agreement. The Good Friday Belfast Agreement not only ended 30 years of the Troubles, it also opened a new era of cooperation. As the first line of the agreement says it is, and I quote, "the opportunity for a new beginning", end of quote. For the two communities and the two islands. And it was indeed a new beginning.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, In these 25 years. Northern Ireland has taken giant steps forward also thanks to its European support. Checkpoints have been replaced with sport venues and schools. Just recently, a wall was torn down in West Belfast to make room for an EU funded community centre. Of course, many other walls still stand. Not all wounds have healed. While a peace deal can be signed with a stroke of a pen, reconciliation is always the work of generations.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, But as one of Northern Ireland's greatest sons, Van Morrison said and I quote, "For the healing, go on with the dreaming", end of quote. And this is what makes the Good Friday Belfast Agreement so important. Beyond the letter and the Spirit, there is a promise of a better future for all the people of Northern Ireland. Sadly, the Brexit referendum raised new challenges for both the letter and the spirit and the promise of the Good Friday Belfast Agreement.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Since 2016, everyone in our union has worked hard to avoid that Brexit became an obstacle on the path of reconciliation on the island of Ireland. This journey was never smooth, but our goal is now finally in sight as a set of joint solutions under which, under the withdrawal agreement, the winds of framework continues to support the letter, the spirit and the promise of the Good Friday Belfast Agreement.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, It preserves our precious single market. It preserves Northern Ireland's integral place in the United Kingdom's internal market. And crucially, it preserves the foundations of peace by avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland. And I want to thank the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, for us can do approach. Together, we are staying true to the Good Friday promise that never again will there be a hard border on the island of Ireland.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, All of this is an immense opportunity for the people of Northern Ireland. They will have the same food on their supermarket shelves and the same access to medicines as in the rest of the UK, and they will continue to have unique access to the single market that is the most powerful driver of growth all across our continent.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Everyone in Northern Ireland will benefit from this. Whether they identify as Irish, British, Northern Irish, European or a combination of all this. So I can only hope that rationality will once again prevail, like just like it did 25 years ago.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Honourable Members, Thanks to the Good Friday Belfast Agreement. There's a whole generation of young people in Northern Ireland who were born and raised in peace, who will not accept to go back to the problems of the past, who just want to live a full life. They understand better than anyone else that peace and prosperity were not achieved once and for all. On that Good Friday agreement, a quarter of a century ago.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Peace and prosperity must be re one day after day, generation after generation. So today we don't just gather for commemoration, but for a new commitment to keep working for reconciliation in Northern Ireland. In spite of all setbacks for the next 25 years and way beyond, the UK may have left our union, but peace remains the European promise. Long live Europe. Many thanks.