Economic Development \ Economic activity and assistance \ European funding \ The Northern Ireland Community Support Framework 2000 - 2006

The Northern Ireland Community Support Framework 2000 - 2006 (the CSF), can be considered as the master agreement between the Northern Ireland authorities and the European Commission for the delivery of EU Structural Funds support to Northern Ireland over the period.

Since 31 December 1999 Northern Ireland has had no special or particular status in EU regional development policies. Northern Ireland is no longer an Objective 1 Region (nor is it an Objective 2 or Objective 3 Region). However, the EU recognises that overly rapid withdrawal of EU support to Northern Ireland would produce considerable difficulties. Northern Ireland is, therefore, regarded as a Transitional Objective 1 Region, ie a region making the transition from having had Objective 1 status to having no particular status. The largest single element of EU support under the CSF is with this transitional process under the 'Programme for Building Sustainable Prosperity'.

The second main element of the CSF is the Peace II Programme. This is a programme to realise the opportunities arising from the Peace Process and to tackle the legacy of the conflict - conditions which are likely to be much more actively enforced than under Peace I. Priority 3 of the Peace II Programme (the 'Locally Based Regeneration and Development Strategies' Priority) will put in place new partnership structures in each local authority district in Northern Ireland and these have important implications for Newry and Mourne, which are discussed later in this Section.

The final component of the CSF is the Community Initiatives, EU Programmes which operate across Europe and in which the Commission has a special interest. The main Programmes of interest in Newry and Mourne are the Interreg III Programme for cross-border development and the Leader + Programme for rural development. The delivery of the Community Initiatives in Newry & Mourne should be informed by this strategy.