# N Ireland gets €200 million Christmas present

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/12/22/n-ireland-gets-e200-million-christmas-present/
- Published: 2005-12-22T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Following the EU budget negotiations last week a further €200 million has been
secured for Peace III (or the Special Programme to Support Peace and Reconciliation
in NI and the Border Counties). It was thought that the second round of EU funding(
Peace II) would be the last for this programme.**

The money will be available for the 2007-2013 period, which will coincide with the
end of the current Peace II extension.

‘Peace money’ currently supports hundreds of projects and thousands of jobs in the
community sector in Northern Ireland and the border counties. The amount of money
is roughly half of what is available in the current extension and so the task for
the sector will be to argue about where the money is spent and on what priorities.

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Consultations on priorities for the new funding will begin in 2006. In response 
to political developments within Northern Ireland during 1994, notably cease-fire
announcements by the IRA and the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC), the 
European Union approved a Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation
in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties of Ireland.

The “Peace Package” which was formally agreed on 28 July 1995 sought to cement peace
building activities and enhance grassroots projects by “promoting social inclusion
of those at the margins of economic and social life” and through exploiting “the
opportunities and addressing the needs arising from the peace process in order to
boost economic growth and stimulate social and economic regeneration”.