This month in Belfast, the President of the Commission launched the second phase of the special support programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties of Ireland. Mr Santer announced that the programme would receive an additional Ecu 100 million on top of the initial EU allocation of Ecu 300 million; the additional funding was voted in December in the European Parliament. The total funding, including the British and Irish government contributions, amounts to Ecu 542 million, of which 80 per cent goes to Northern Ireland, and the remainder to the Border Counties.
The programme is running from 1995 to 1999. It aims to reinforce progress towards a peaceful and stable society and to promote reconciliation. It has five priorities: employment, urban and rural regeneration, cross-Border co-operation, social inclusion, and productive investment. There have been close to 20,000 applications for funding from bodies such as non-governmental organisations.
Mr Santer said that the programme had been a great success. "I would hope that as long as it is needed, it will continue, supporting in time, we all hope, a final peace settlement." The event was attended by Northern Ireland's three MEPs, John Hume, Jim Nicholson and Ian Paisley, who have all lobbied vigorously in the European Parliament to obtain the additional funding.