The British-Irish Council is a body created by the Belfast Agreement in 1998, and formally established on 2 December 1999 on the entry into force of the consequent legislation. Its membership includes representatives from the governments of Ireland; the United Kingdom and three of its constituent countries: Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales; and the three Crown dependencies: Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. Its stated aim is to "promote the harmonious and mutually beneficial development of the totality of relationships among the peoples of these islands". The Council is often referred to as the Council of the Isles or Council of the British Isles, names that were put forward when the Council was originally conceived, but it does not use this name officially. Due to the ambiguous constitutional status of England, it is not represented on the Council as an independent entity.