UUP executive to decide policy on joint declaration

The executive council of the Ulster Unionist Party is due to meet in Belfast later today to decide its policy in relation to the Irish-British declaration on implementing the Good Friday Agreement.

The declaration was published earlier this year, shortly before Britain cancelled the North’s Assembly elections. It sets out what measures are needed from all the pro-agreement parties and the two Governments to secure the full implementation of the 1998 peace deal.

The UUP has expressed reservations about the document, but it decided earlier this year to defer a final decision on whether to accept or reject.

Party leader David Trimble is today expected to call on the 100-strong UUP executive to reject parts of the declaration, including the scaling down of the British army’s Royal Irish Regiment and military bases along the Irish border.

The move is believed to be an olive branch to anti-agreement UUP dissidents who have called on the party to reject the declaration outright.

Three of the dissidents, Jeffrey Donaldson, David Burnside and Martin Smyth, resigned the party whip at Westminster earlier this year in protest at the UUP’s refusal to reject the document in its entirety.

After today’s executive meeting, the UUP officer board is due to meet to discuss what disciplinary action, if any, should be taken against the three men. If the anti-agreement camp supports Mr Trimble’s position on the joint declaration, then the disciplinary action is likely to be set aside.