CENTRE stage the various tracks to peace in Northern Ireland certainly look precarious. But, off the beaten track is another whose way has not yet been blocked by the collapse of the ceasefire and whose champions retain an infectious resilience in the face of the adversity of the last days. Their message is that peace can be built by slow patient bridge building, from the bottom up.
Off the record, EU officials will boast that in promoting dialogue on the ground they have already done more for the peace process than the two governments put together. It is a claim, though overstated, that has some merits.
The European Commission confirmed last week that funding for its special £240 million programme for peace and reconciliation has not, for the time being, been put in jeopardy by the London bombing. A prolonged breakdown in the ceasefire may, in the long run, require a reappraisal but there would be no "hasty decisions", the Regional Affairs Commissioner promises.
Ms Monica Wulf Mathies, who has overall responsibility for the three year programme, and the Irish Commissioner for Social Affairs, Mr Padraig Flynn, whose remit covers a substantial portion of the funds, have joined in expressing horror at the attacks and in calling for renewed commitment to the process of reconciliation.
The upbeat Ms Wulf Mathies invests much faith in the power of ordinary people to stop the violence. She has been three or four times to the North in the last year and says she believes that a profound change of attitude has already been brought about in the political climate "that won't allow further violence."
"I am still optimistic that the people will prevent the terrorists from going further," she says. And since the EU funding is "directed to ordinary people in the street, we want to send an important message that we want to continue support for them."
Mr Flynn says it would be a tragedy if the peace process was not allowed to continue. He is determined to see the Union's financial and political "people centred" support continuing.
A senior Commission official close to the initiative says that cutting it would be "like penalising the community twice".
The Union's special package of aid was the product of an initiative of the former President of the Commission, Mr Jacques Delors, in the wake of the ceasefire. The cross Border programme is targeted primarily at projects involving work on social exclusion and employment generation.
Commission officials are keen to emphasise that the unusually democratic, innovative funding mechanisms being used by the EU are themselves contributing in a distinctive and significant way to what might be termed their own track of the peace process. By promoting and giving strong financial incentives to local dialogue, they argue they are building reconciliation from the bottom up.
More than 50 per cent of the funding is being provided on a decentralised basis through locally based, cross community and cross Border partnerships and global grants. Approval for projects is conditional on groups being able to show that both projects and managements are representative of both sections of the community.
Monitoring of the programme is also carried out with a strong grass roots involvement.
Ms Wulf Mathies argues that even before cash from Brussels has arrived, the process of putting together projects "has already built confidence and established a spilt of cooperation in areas where people had no connections." That process is reinforced by the content of many of the programmes, which are specifically targeted at reconciliation, or, like some of the exprisoner schemes, at providing alternatives.
That has meant, inevitably, that many of the groups involved in developing projects or partnerships may have paramilitary connections, but Ms Wulf Mathies refuses to be drawn down the road of closing doors by beginning now to exclude them.
The Commission, she says, is merely acting as an enabler, and the question of the role of individuals and groups is one that needs to be addressed to the local cross community partnerships. She believes that, for the most part, they would want to continue the valuable work they are doing. The Commission would listen to their experience, she says, "but we in Brussels should not preempt the reactions of the people."
One of the mechanisms established by the Commission is a Monitoring Committee made up of representatives of both governments, the Commission, and of local business, union and community groups. Its first meeting is due this month when the commissioner expects to get strong feedback on programme's operation and viability so far.
