|
 Economic
Development \ Economic activity
and assistance \ European funding overview
European
funding
Overview
Across
the EU a key political and operational priority is to bring the
European Union and its activities closer to the people, to make
its impacts more visible to local people and to enhance their participation
and control of EU funds for local development.
This priority is reflected in the new
and now agreed EU Structural Funds Programmes for Northern Ireland,
as it is in other European Regions. In an important development,
the Northern Ireland Executive has said that it wishes to use the
partnership structures which are to be created to oversee the use
of EU money at local level in Northern Ireland as part of a wider
and longer term initiative to increase partnership working and participation
in local decision-making across Northern Ireland.
Working together, the The
Northern Ireland Community Support Framework and Priority
3 of the Peace II Programme could lead
to a very substantial change in the governance of Northern Ireland,
although the full impact of the new arrangements will not be apparent
for some time. Indeed, the Programme is administered by the Special
EU Programmes Body, one of the six cross-border bodies established
under the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement.
This general push towards local decision-making
is reinforced by the EU legislation governing the Structural Funds
which, for example, give much greater weight to social partner and
local authority representation on the Programme Monitoring Committees
which are the final decision-making organisations for EU Programmes
once they have been approved by the Commission.
This Section describes the main features
of agreed future EU funding for Northern Ireland over the period
to 2006 and considers the implications of local delivery structures,
which are to be developed in each District Council Area in Northern
Ireland.
Further detailed information on all
aspects of European Funding is available through the official website
www.eugrants.org
|
