Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 8th January, 2021.

I, SIMON COVENEY, Minister for Foreign Affairs, in exercise of the powers conferred upon me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972) and for the purpose of giving further effect to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part, done at Brussels and London on 30 December 2020, the signing on behalf of the European Union and provisional application of which has been approved by Council Decision (EU) 2020/2252 of 29 December 2020¹ , make the following regulations:

1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Union (International Cooperation) Regulations 2020.

2. These Regulations shall come into operation at 11:00 p.m. on the 31^st day of December 2020.

3. Section 109(1) of the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Act 2014 (No. 11 of 2014) is amended-

(a) in the definition of “European Union or international instrument”, by the insertion of the following subparagraph after subparagraph (ii):

“(iia) the Trade and Cooperation Agreement;”, and

(b) by the insertion of the following definition:

“ ‘Trade and Cooperation Agreement’ means the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part, done at Brussels and London on 30 December 2020;”.

GIVEN under my Official Seal,

31 December, 2020.

SIMON COVENEY,

Minister for Foreign Affairs.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

The purpose of these Regulations is to give further effect to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part (‘the Agreement’).

The Regulations amend the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Act 2014 (No. 11 of 2014) by including the Agreement within the definition of ‘European Union or international instrument’ provided for at section 109 of that Act.

1 O.J. No. L 444, 31.12.2020, pp. 2–10