Brussels, 31/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - Although there have been sectarian clashes in Belfast in recent week, Commissioner Johannes Hahn says the PEACE programme, with cash from the EU Structural Funds to help reconcile the divided communities in Northern Ireland, aims to create opportunities for young people, who are at the heart of the violence.
The PEACE programme, in force since 1995, was the focus of a conference in Brussels on Thursday 31 January 2013 on best practices for bringing divided communities together. Commissioner Hahn said it had formed part of the peace programme in Northern Ireland: “The PEACE programme has been a long standing partnership between the people and political leaders of Northern Ireland and the European Commission, supported by the governments of the UK and Ireland”. He said it had played an important role in allowing other work to continue.
Hahn went on: “Creating new opportunities for the young people of Northern Ireland is essential, as the troubles of the last few weeks have illustrated. Here, as elsewhere, it is the young that we must teach to see their communities with new eyes, sowing the seeds of a more tolerant society that will leave hatred behind. The PEACE programme has projects operating in some very difficult and deprived areas. They aim to engage with young people to provide them with the skills and confidence to deal with and avoid sectarian violence. These projects are often accompanied by measures to provide the necessary skills to get a job”. Brendan Howlin, teh Irish public spending and reforms minister, said PEACE had proved particularly effective in dealing with the needs of Northern Ireland and on the Irish border, adding that the shared space initiative had given new pride and ownership to areas that had once been divided.
Hahn added: “Every divided community has its own story and will have to find its own way to reconciliation. But the experience of the PEACE programme may be a source of ideas for others, or, just as important, a source of confidence that rifts can heal”. The European Commission has suggested a budget of €150 million to extend the programme beyond 2014, and the European Summit next week will endorse this or suggest reduced funding. (MD/transl.fl)