accountability

   Being answerable, having a duty to justify one’s actions or inaction. A system of control and answerability is seen as an inherent part of democratic and representative government

   Certain political mechanisms are created whereby elected representatives have to account for their stewardship of office, the most obvious being regular elections. The doctrines of collective and individual ministerial responsibility are intended to ensure accountability, for they involve ministers being answerable to Parliament. Parliamentary questions provides a further opportunity to challenge them over their policies and performance. acquis communautaire The rights and obligations arising from the entire body of principles, policies, laws, practices and objectives which have been developed within the European Union and must be accepted by all wouldbe entrants. Most notably, the term refers to the treaties, all legislation to date and decisions of the European Court of Justice. Britain recognised and accepted the acquis communautaire in its accession treaty (1972). Adams, Gerry (1948– ) Born into a strongly activist and nationalist Catholic family, Gerry Adams soon became involved in the republican movement and joined the Sinn Féin Party. He has always denied membership of the Irish Republican Army, although British and Irish state papers of the early 1970s named him as a leading figure, a claim often repeated. He was interned three times in that decade. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1983–92 and again in 1997. He has not taken his seat at Westminster, for as with other Sinn Féiners, he refuses to take the compulsory Oath of Allegiance to the British Sovereign. He has been instrumental in persuading party colleagues to base their influence on mainstream electoral politics rather than paramilitarism. The reward has been governmental recognition of him as a key player in the peace process and the signing – and subsequent attempts at implementation – of the Good Friday Agreement. Some republican opponents accused him of ‘selling out’ to the British and Irish governments, but he saw the Agreement as a means of ultimately delivering a united Ireland by non-violent and constitutional means. He was credited with having been much involved in persuading the IRA to decommission its arms in 2005. In March 2007, he met with DUP leader Ian Paisley face-to-face for the first time. The two men came to an agreement which paved the way for the reinstatement of the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland.