Large cuts loom for EU peace pot

Around 333million euros in peace money has been pumped into Northern Ireland since 2007 - 225m from the EU and 108m from the British and Irish Governments.

This has paid for the Londonderry Peace Bridge and this weekend’s ‘Bright Brand New Day’ event, amongst other things.

Loyalist and republican ex-prisoners and their families were also the intended beneficiaries of over £14m in EU peace money pumped into Northern Ireland to reinforce a peaceful and stable society since 2007.

And it’s estimated that a total of £2.5billion in peace cash came in- some 59 per cent of it coming from the EU - from the start of the first EU Peace programme in 1995 to 2011.

But for the next seven years a meagre 150million euros has been earmarked as part of the EU budget - a fraction of previous expenditure.

Organisations currently in receipt of peace money under the 2007 to 2013 Peace III programme claim a well-funded Peace IV programme over 2004 to 2020 is vital to help continue building the peace here.

In a recent Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring Report, published by the Community Relations Council, Dr Paul Nolan warned: “If it fails to materialise, there is no expectation that the gap will be filled by funding from the Assembly.

“As detailed in the first Peace Monitoring Report, since 1994 almost 90 per cent of funding for peacebuilding in Northern Ireland has come from external sources.”

Ironically, the Cabinet Minister responsible for promoting security, political stability and a stable, prosperous and peaceful future in Northern Ireland, has pushed for cuts to the EU budget, which may well affect peace funding here.

Speaking in March, Theresa Villiers, boasted of having “rigorously opposed unacceptable expansion of EU powers” by campaigning against UK membership of the Euro, the European constitution and the Nice and Lisbon Treaties.

She said: “Under the current seven year framework, which runs out this year, the EU’s credit card limit was £816bn; and the European Commission wanted to increase it to £855bn.

“Instead, we have achieved an agreement to cut it to £785bn meaning that we have sliced £30bn from the limit agreed by the previous Government.”

If the EU Parliament fails to pass a budget guaranteeing reduced peace programme until 2020 at least, some believe it could have grave implications.

The Sentinel recenty reported how analysts at US intelligence firm Stratfor felt cuts to public funding and poor economic performance could be seized on by dissident republican groups as a recruiting sergeant.

In a series of emails published by Wikileaks, a Stratfor analyst stated: “Around 32 percent of the Northern Ireland workforce is employed in the public sector and depends on 16 billion pounds (25.6 billion dollars) worth of transfer payments from London each year.

“This dependency on London is the result, in part, of the United Kingdom’s attempt to pump enough cash into the province, and provide enough jobs, to mitigate sectarian tensions.

“These looming budget cuts could therefore have a direct impact on the Northern Ireland’s jobless rate, driving up discontent and anger towards London.

“Those kinds of sentiments are exactly what the RIRA can prey upon, might want to add ‘for recruitment purposes.’”

Another analyst put it more bluntly stating: “If you want to talk grievances here, you may want to bring up the fact that Ireland is absolutely F****D when it comes to econ [sic].”

The negotiations on the new EU budget are being chaired by the Irish Tánaiste and Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore. Mr Gilmore - a former member of the Workers’ Party, an offshoot of the Official wing of the Republican movement - says he wants a deal on the new EU budget before the end of the Irish Presidency in June.