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14 October 2025

British and Irish lawmakers call for further cooperation on defence and security

A report from a committee of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly welcomes recent developments on UK and European security and defence cooperation and calls for several key steps to further strengthen joint resilience against shared threats.

Committee B Report on Defence Cooperation

Among the European Affairs Committee’s recommendations are calls for the UK and Irish Governments and the EU to work closely to manage any future divergence in intelligence and policing cooperation, and include energy security in discussions.

The Committee also recommends that the UK and Ireland establish a joint statutory Cables Protection Commission to protect and monitor communication cables, gas pipelines and other maritime infrastructure.

The report further highlights the significant impact of irregular migration to the EU on security and recommends improvements in cooperation when it comes to intelligence sharing and countermeasures.

Governments in all BIPA jurisdictions should also urgently update their legacy IT systems and intensively share information and best practice to ensure the highest possible levels of cyber security, the Committee adds.

The report is the final report of the inquiry into UK-EU Defence and Security Cooperation post-Brexit, which was launched in 2018. Its publication comes following security and defence agreements concluded between the UK and Ireland in March and between the UK and EU in May. The Committee expects that the agreements will results in a more collaborative approach to security and defence.

Committee Chair, Darren Millar MS, said:

“The security landscape has shifted dramatically since the start of our inquiry in 2018 and the recent agreements between the UK and Ireland and the EU are a welcome response to the ever-changing threats that we face.

We now need to ensure that we deepen cooperation and coordination when it comes to cyber security, intelligence and policing, and protecting the infrastructure that is critical to our way of life

We urge governments to act decisively on our recommendations to strengthen collective security and build on the progress we have already made.”