NORTHERN Ireland's three MEPs have been promised the full backing of the European Commission for the extension of the special grants towards peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.
Now the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers have to agree the funding, worth £169 million over two years for projects in, Northern Ireland and Border regions.
The three MEPs, the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, the leader of the DUP, Dr Ian Paisley and Mr, Jim Nicholson of the Ulster Unionists, met the president of the Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, yesterday afternoon.
After the meeting the three men warned that acts of violence and the continued IRA campaign could be used as a reason to block the money going to Northern Ireland. There were "budgetary forces whose position of opposition is strengthened by the actions of the IRA", said Mr Hume.
Mr Santer told The Irish Times the Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland was a model for co-operation between grass-roots organisations and the institutions of the EU. In its three years of operation it had been an example of good collaboration.
Those who opposed the extension because of the breakdown of the peace process were wrong, he said. The programme was designed to bring people together. There was no peace, but there was reconciliation, he said. The programe provided the "building blocks for confidence", he said.
Mr Santer said that the funding was not coming from any other programme and was totally new money.
It, is believed that a mid-term review of the programme is taking place and a report has been com missioned from the accountants, Coopers and Lybrand, to see how it has worked on the ground.
The programme was put in place at the initiative of the then President of the Commission, Mr Jacques Delors, in 1994 - with £80 million a year, over three years for projects that aided the victims of violence and contributed to peace and reconciliation.