Trimble, Durkan to open Brussels office

The leaders of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government left for Brussels today for a two-day visit aimed at forging closer links with the European Union.

Stormont First Minister David Trimble and Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan will officially open an office for the Executive in the Belgian capital.

A spokesman said the office would ensure ‘‘effective and active participation by the Executive within the European Union, enabling it both to keep up to date with EU policy and to influence it for the benefit of Northern Ireland’’.

Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan are also scheduled to meet a number of key figures in the European Union.

Meetings have been lined up with the European Commission’s president Romano Prodi and other commissioners, the newly-elected president of the European Parliament Pat Cox, EU secretary general David O’Sullivan and MEPs.