Study warns North is in danger of being sidelined in Europe

NORTHERN IRELAND should find an autonomous European voice to prevent itself being marginalised in the European Union, a new study has proposed.

The North, because it is, a region of the "most Euro sceptical state" in the European Union, now faces being left behind in the European stream, according to Mr Robin Wilson, head of Democratic Dialogue, a Belfast based think tank.

His study, Continentally Challenged, published yesterday, says that the North needs an agreed, egalitarian, democratic administration to press its case in Europe.

"Such an administration should willingly embrace the European social model which the current Westminster government has rejected", Mr Wilson says.

The refusal of the British government to campaign for special BSE free status for Northern Ireland - even though the incidence of BSE in the North is dramatically lower than that in Britain - shows that the North is "virtually powerless to press its regional interests in Europe", he says.

The study points to the benefits the Republic has gained through its pro EU stance and says, that any agreed Northern administration should realise the pragmatic advantages of co operating, with the Europhile administration in Dublin".

The study found that the North was poorly prepared for the competitive environment of Economic and Monetary Union. Equally, it had not confronted the prospect of a decline in levels of EU funding with a few years as a results of the demands arising from enlargement of the EU to the east.

"In failing to adequately embrace the European debate, Northern Ireland has not only failed to raise itself from the bottom end of the EU regional league table, but it has also missed some political tricks which could help resolve its governance crisis", Mr Wilson says.

"At a time of continental upheaval, reflected in the moves towards Economic and Monetary Union and renegotiation of the EU treaties, Northern Ireland lacks the voice in Europe which the Republic has gratefully acquired and the UK has effectively forsworn", he adds.

In the absence of an agreed administration, Mr Wilson proposes the formation of a Northern Ireland Forum on Europe. This forum should draw together employers, farmers, trade unions, the voluntary sector, the North's three MEPs and other interested bodies to campaign for an agreed set of goals on Northern Ireland's place in Europe.

The study proposes the creation of a strategic unit on European matters within the Northern Ireland Office which would develop an "intelligent and strategic dialogue" with the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin.

"The recommendations in this report have major implications for our economic prosperity, our social well being, the better governance of Northern, Ireland and for North South relations in Ireland. Taken in the round, they would place the region and its citizens at the heart of a last changing Europe, not left behind in a sidestream", the study adds.