A study by Professor Brigid Laffan and Dr Diane Payne of the Institute for British-Irish Studies at University College Dublin, which analyses the interaction between the new North/South institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement – notably the North/South Ministerial Council and the Special EU Programmes Body – and the EU’s funding programme for cross-border co-operation, INTERREG. Among the report’s conclusions are:
- Despite the crisis-prone nature of the peace process, the North/South institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement “have the capacity to deliver the objective of routine public policy making between North and South.”
- The greatest potential for the Special EU Programmes Body to play an all-island role lies in the Common Chapter of the two jurisdictions’ 2000-2006 development plans.
- A significant new player in the border region will be the three cross-border local authority networks known as the Border Corridor Groups, which will get significant funding from the INTERREG III programme.
See seminar details, press release and the final report
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