Brussels, 11/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 1 May, during his visit to Northern Ireland, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso announced the setting up of a task force to support the peace process. Thus it was that, in her role as chairwoman of the task force, Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner travelled to Belfast on Friday 8 June. There she met Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland minister for finance and personnel, to discuss how the European Commission could help Northern Ireland boost its involvement in Community policies and programmes as part of its efforts to modernise the economy. Speaking after the meeting, Ms Hübner said: “Our aim is to see how the administration, business, research institutes and other interests in Northern Ireland can become more deeply involved in EU initiatives and programmes that can contribute to economic development and job creation in the region”.
She also met the three members of the European Parliament from Northern Ireland, Jim Allister, Bairbre de Brun, and James Nicholson, to discuss the work of the task force, and visited two projects which have had Peace Programme support: the Institute of Electronics, Communications & Information Technology and the NGO Intercomm, set up to manage programmes to help resolve inter-community conflict.
A note from Ms Hübner's spokeswoman Eva Kaluzynska pointed out that “86% of the funds for the Northern Ireland programme for Competitiveness and Employment have been earmarked for investments that will contribute to the Lisbon growth and jobs agenda. This is a significant step forward compared to the figure of 53% in the current programme”. (gb)