ONE of the key elements of the European Peace Fund for the North was formally launched yesterday in Limavady, Co Derry, with the first meeting of the Northern Ireland Partnership Board.
The board will oversee the district partnerships to be set up throughout the North as part of the EU Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation. A total of £49.1 million sterling has been allocated under the programme, £36.8 million of it by the EU and £12.3 million by the British government.
The money is intended to support sustainable and creative social and economic development projects which will assist community relations.
The Partnership Board is a new body, consisting of representatives from the main political parties, the voluntary and community sector, business, trade unions and rural interests.
Its role is to approve the composition and action plan of the 26 district partnerships, each of which will be allocated a proportion of the £36 million based on population and relative deprivation.
Each district partnership is to consult within its own area to ascertain how money can be used to target those most in need and those who have suffered most from violence.
The board is to be chaired initially by Mr Ronnie Spence, Permanent Secretary of the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland.
The political parties are represented as follows on the board: Mr Fred Cobain, Belfast City Council; and Mr William Wright, Ballymena Borough Council (both UUP); Ms Margaret Ritchie, Down District Council, and Mr Joe Byrne, Omagh District Council (both SDLP); Mr Nigel Dodds, Belfast City Council, and Mr Maurice Morrow, Dungannon District Council, (both DUP); Ms Annie Armstrong, Lisburn Borough Council (Sinn Fein); and Mr Peter Osborne, Castlereagh Borough Council (Alliance).
The Partnership Board is an executive body, independent of government, registered as a company limited by guarantee.
A Belfast European Partnership Board is being set up to distribute the money available within the Belfast City Council area, which will amount to about £13.5 million sterling with matching funds. It will draw up an action plan for submission to the Partnership Board.