The Northern Secretary, Dr Reid, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, yesterday wrote to the leaders of the North's political parties involved in last month's Weston Park talks, as follows:
Northern Ireland Office Castle Buildings, BELFAST, BT4 3SG
Department Of Foreign Affairs, St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2
1 August 2001
Dear Party Leader
Implementation Of The Good Friday Agreement
1. Following the intensive discussions at Weston Park three weeks ago, the two Governments have now agreed the elements of a package which, we believe, will help deliver the full and early implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
2. The package covers all four outstanding issues - policing, normalisation, the stability of the institutions and decommissioning. The two Governments believe that it represents a fair, balanced and justified package of proposals.
3. We are today putting to all the parties who were at Weston Park our proposals on those four areas, including a draft statement which the parties would issue, in the event that the overall package was acceptable.
4. As we said at Weston Park, while each of the issues - policing, decommissioning, normalisation and the stability of the institutions - is best addressed in its own terms rather than being seen as a precondition for progress on any other, the agreement can only succeed if all parts of it are implemented together. In this context, these proposals set out the steps we would take as part of a package to secure the full implementation of the agreement.
5. We now invite the parties to respond to these proposals by 6 August.
John Reid
Brian Cowen