# £500 million EU funding agreed for N Ireland

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/11/13/500-million-eu-funding-agreed-n-ireland/
- Published: 2007-11-13T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

EU funding of £500 million over the next six years has been confirmed for Northern
Ireland by the European Commission. The money will go towards three general areas–
regional competitiveness, peace and reconciliation and cross border co-operation
which now includes western Scotland.

 

 

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Of most interest to the voluntary sector will be the Peace III programme which 
will allocate money under two themes, Reconciling Communities and Contributing to
a Shared Society. The first theme will receive funding of ‚€140-‚€200 million while
the second theme will allocate ‚€80-‚€130 million

 

 

The application and delivery mechanism for the Peace III funding is different from
the previous round, with councils being given a key role. The complicating factor
is that councils are still in consultation about a reduction in the number of councils
and it is difficult to predict the boundaries of the new bodies that will emerge

 

 

Belfast City Council, whose boundaries are not likely to change radically, is the
most advanced in its plans to distribute the ‚€18 million it will be dispensing 
and has published a draft consultation document on its website. Again the delivery
mechanism will be different, with the councils inviting tenders from other organisations
with appropriate expertise to deliver specific actions under the objectives of the
Peace Plan. They say they expect the majority of funding to be taken up by large
grants (£100,000 and above) and this will be allocated through a mix of open calls
and commissioned work on thematic areas.

 

 

They have not, however, ruled out a small grants programme and may use Peace III
money to enhance the council’s existing small grants programme. Details can be found
on the council’s website under the ‘good relations’ section.

 

 

 

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