The Price of Peace: Key elements of the peace plan

(CNN)

• A 108-seat Northern Ireland Assembly is to be set up and will be elected every five years by proportional representation. Its area of authority will include agriculture, finance, health and economic development.

• A 12-member Cabinet will be set up. Ministers may participate only if they pursue democratic, nonviolent, policies. Mechanisms will ensure that both Protestants and Catholics are represented in the Cabinet.

• If approved, elections to the assembly are likely to occur in June and opening of the assembly would occur later in the summer or the autumn.

• A new north-south Irish ministerial council with lawmakers from the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Irish Republic will consult and act on areas of mutual benefit, such as agriculture, transportation links, policing and relations with the European Union.

• The assembly and the council are to be interdependent, with regular meetings on a plenary basis or at committee level.

• A British-Irish Council will be set up. It will include representatives of the British and Irish governments, the Northern Irish Assembly and representatives of assemblies for Scotland and Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

• The council will hold regular summit meetings to boost matters of mutual interest, such as transport links, agriculture, environmental, cultural, health and education issues as well as approaches to European Union matters.

• The council can agree on common policies and actions but any individual participant can opt out of such common policies.

• A new agreement will establish a new British-Irish Conference which will subsume the inter-governmental relations established under the 1985 Anglo-Irish agreement.

• The new conference will debate "non-devolved Northern Ireland matters" and meet at either at summit or ministerial level.

Under the new Northern Ireland agreement there are also guidelines for resolving such sensitive and controversial issues as the decommissioning of paramilitary arms, the release of prisoners and policing.

• All participants reaffirm their commitment to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organizations. The participants are to use any influence they may have to achieve the decommissioning of all paramilitary arms.

• The two governments will make sure the decommissioning schemes come into force by June. Full disarmament is to be achieved two years after the endorsement of the peace plan.

• An independent commission will monitor, review and verify progress on the decommissioning.

• Both governments will speed up the release of paramilitary prisoners. But prisoners affiliated with organizations which have not established, or are not maintaining, a complete and unequivocal cease-fire will not benefit from the release programs. Release dates will be set for all qualifying prisoners.

• The agreement provides the opportunity for a new beginning to policing with a police service capable of attracting support from nationalists. An independent commission will be established to make recommendations for future policing arrangements in the North. The commission is to have expert and international representation and must report by summer 1999.

• There will be a review of criminal justice carried out by the British government with an independent body. The British government states it remains ready in principle to devolve justice issues in case of broad support of the political parties and after consultation with the Irish government.