24 January 2000

NEGOTIATIONS ON FUTURE EU ASSISTANCE TO NORTHERN IRELAND TO BEGIN SOON

Mr Mark Durkan MLA, Minister of Finance and Personnel with responsibility for EU Structural Funds announced today that negotiations with the European Commission regarding European assistance to Northern Ireland over the period 2000-2006 are expected to begin very soon.

Mr Durkan confirmed: "I am looking forward to the opening of these negotiations which will provide the new devolved administration with an opportunity to take its own view of the funding priorities which will eventually be included in the new Community Support Framework. This is likely to be the last significant tranche of Structural Funds assistance that Northern Ireland will receive. We are determined to ensure that the funds are spent in the best possible way."

Mr Durkan added: "European Commission officials are currently drawing up their negotiating mandate on the overall framework of EU support for Northern Ireland and this is expected to be ready by the end of January 2000, which will allow negotiations to commence with officials in my Department shortly afterwards. I am also arranging to have a discussion with Commissioner Barnier, who is responsible for Regional Policy, when he visits Northern Ireland at the beginning of February."

As often happens in such negotiations, the European Commission have asked for clarification of a number of technical matters in the two Operational Programmes prior to accepting the admissibility of our proposals. These relate primarily to the setting of quantified targets in the transitional Objective 1 Programme and the Peace II Programme. These technical matters will be resolved very soon. The European Commission has confirmed that no time will be lost in the negotiation process.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

The Northern Ireland Structural Funds Plan, which was submitted formally to the European Commission on 15 November, provides only a broad indication of the proposed funding levels for the priorities in the Operational Programmes. It was considered important by NIO Ministers not to prejudge the views that a Northern Ireland Executive might take when it would come to power and therefore the Plan retains a substantial degree of flexibility. This is also the case for the new Operational Programmes, a Transitional Objective 1 Programme and Peace II Programme, which provide more details on the proposals and which were submitted to the Commission on 1 December 1999.

The Community Support Framework (CSF) is the document approved by the European Commission following an appraisal of the Plan and contains the broad strategy and priorities for implementation of the Structural Funds Plan agreed with the Member State. Under the Structural Funds Regulations, a period of up to 5 months is allowed for the negotiation and agreement of the CSF. Commission Decisions on the draft Operational Programmes will follow upon the CSF Decision.

The special package which was awarded to Northern Ireland at the Berlin Summit in March 1999 is expected to be worth around 1.4 beuro (£940 million approximately) made up of 0.89 beuro (£590 million approximately) under the Transitional Objective 1 Programme, 0.42 beuro (£280 million approximately) under Peace II and around 0.1 beuro (approximately £65 million for the 4 EU-wide Community Initiatives - INTERREG, LEADER, EQUAL and URBAN.) The exact amount of funding involved for the Initiatives is not yet known.