EU's Peace II injects £7m into community groups

More than 40 community relations groups across Northern Ireland are to receive over £7 million from the European Union as part of the Peace II funding.

The cash represents the second round of funding from the European Union’s Peace and Reconciliation Programme for Northern Ireland.

The funding programme is designed to reinforce progress towards a more peaceful society through reconciliation through five main avenues: economic renewal; social integration and inclusion; local based regeneration; outward and forward initiatives and cross border co-operation.

Last year the Community Relations Council (CRC) was appointed as an intermediary funding body for Peace II. Under Measure 2.1, ‘Reconciliation for Sustainable Peace’, the CRC was allocated £10 million over the next three years for grant-aiding which will account for about 3% of the overall Peace II expenditure in Northern Ireland.

Today the CRC revealed that one of those to benefit will be the Irish Football Association, which has set up a project to eradicate sectarianism and other problems in the game.

The strategy is due to run for the next four years and is aimed at making the game more inclusive.

The EU Peace Programme is widely regarded as essential to redressing the social and economic problems at the root of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Thousands of community-based projects on both sides of the border have now received funds from both the Peace I and Peace II programmes.

And earlier today, NIO Minister Des Browne told the Standing Community Convention, a forum set up by the Community Foundation to encourage the voluntary and community sector to look at the operation and delivery of the Peace II Programme, that it was "vital for government to work in partnership with the voluntary and community sector".

He added: "There is no acceptable level of violence and we will do our utmost to identify what works to reduce that particular scourge on their lives. I am determined that the Community Action Group, which I announced recently, will drive forward actions to address the pressing issues surrounding the ongoing violence at interface areas. These include environmental measures to reduce the painting of sectarian graffiti and the displaying of flags and emblems.”

The Minister also commended the importance of the work undertaken by all the community organisations participating in the Peace II programme and stressed the importance of government listening to and learning from the deliberations of the Convention.

Mr Browne concluded by saying that consultations would start shortly for the development of a new community relations policy framework.

(AMcE)