Unionists veto EU observer status motion
A motion seeking Assembly support for Northern Ireland acquiring observer status in the European Parliament was defeated by a petition of concern (POC) in mid-January 2026.
On 8 December 2025, Sinn Féin MLA Ciara Ferguson submitted a motion to request the Assembly support the region to acquire observer status. Leader of the Opposition Matthew O’Toole MLA amended the motion to request support for the establishment of a European Commission office in Belfast.
Subsequently, the DUP led a petition of concern (POC) on the matter which was supported by the TUV and the UUP. A POC is a mechanism whereby 30 MLAs can petition the Assembly for a matter to require cross-community support to be passed.
This means it requires a majority of both designated nationalists and unionists voting, or 60 per cent support from MLAs voting including 40 percent of designated nationalists and unionists voting. This is the first time a petition of concern was successful since November 2015, when the DUP invoked it to veto the passage of same-sex marriage. At the time, the party held 38 seats which allowed it to trigger the petition of concern unilaterally.
Following defeat of the motion during an Assembly meeting on 12 January 2026, O’Toole criticised the use of the POC to oppose the motion. The POC process was reformed through the Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Act 2022 under the New Decade, New Approach agreement.
New Decade, New Approach states that parties “will publicly commit to tabling or supporting petitions of concern only in the most exception circumstances and as a last resort, having used every other available mechanism”.
It also states that the mechanism should not be used for motions and questions “which have no express legal or procedural effect”. During the Assembly meeting on 12 January 2026, Principal Deputy Speaker Carál Ní Chuilín MLA said the relevant standing orders for reforms to POCs have not been introduced, according to the SDLP.
“The ongoing confusion around how petitions of concern operate underlines the dysfunction that continues to define Stormont,” says O’Toole.
“The motion on EU observer status was non-binding and had no legal basis. It was totally inappropriate for this to be subjected to a POC. This is an abuse of power and a waste of precious Assembly time.”
Upon defeat of the motion, DUP Leader Gavin Robinson MP said: “While Sinn Féin dress it up as a technical or diplomatic issue, in reality it is about using the Assembly to advance a deeper EU connection with Northern Ireland and to edge us further away from our position within the United Kingdom.”
Article 13 of the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure states that observers can be appointed where a treaty on the accession of a state to the European Union has been signed.
The rules outline that observers can speak in committees and political groups but cannot vote, stand for election, or represent the parliament externally. There are no provisions in the rules that extend observer status to regions that have not signed a treaty of accession.
