Northern Ireland could achieve a designated special status in the European Union after Brexit, according to an independent legal opinion from Doughty Street Chambers.

In a new 68-page report commissioned by the GUE/NGL group of the European Parliament, Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC and Katie O’Byrne argue that a number of solutions that protect Northern Ireland’s interests are “legally possible”.

They example three models, which are dubbed the “Reverse Cyprus” model, the “Reverse Greenland” model, and the “German” model:

In the report’s conclusion, Ms Gallagher and Ms O’Byrne write: “The EU has a long and impressive history of creating and agreeing to tailored, differentiated packages with other individual states or part of states in order to reflect and respect particular legal, political, historical, economic and / or geographical circumstances.

“This Report has explored possible solutions for Northern Ireland within the EU. Such solutions, even in this very challenging context, are undoubtedly legally possible.”

However, they add: “Securing political agreement to a viable overall principle, and then negotiating over the detail, is far more difficult.”