Paisley and McGuinness embark on EU mission

The joint leaders of the North's power-sharing government will hold talks in Brussels today with senior European Union officials including commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.

It is the second time in eight months Stormont First Minister Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness have met the Portuguese president of the commission.

The pair will be urged today to use European Union cash to help boost the North's economy, with the meeting coming just weeks before publication of a detailed report on how the North can maximise the benefits.

During a visit to Stormont last April, just one week before the resumption of devolution, Mr Barroso agreed to the setting up of an EU taskforce to help the North access funds to boost its economy.

At the time Mr Barroso vowed that the EU would continue to support the new administration financially and politically, having already pledged more than €910m between 2007 and 2013.

Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness’ latest talks with the Mr Barroso will focus on how the European Union can help build peace and prosperity in the North.

EU Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hubner, who was appointed by Mr Barroso to head his taskforce to help the North, will also hold talks with the pair.

Ms Hubner will tell Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness that, after restoring peace and stability, the North's leadership should now turn its full attention to capitalising on the EU connection, making full use of research and development funds, and the Erasmus student exchange schemes which have been under-exploited in comparison with other parts of the Union such as in the rest of Ireland.

Her taskforce began work just as the North's new leadership was installed, with a mandate approved by Mr Barroso to focus on how the North can become more competitive, developing the private sector and generating more high quality, better paid jobs and skills.

The full taskforce report will set out in more detail what needs to be done, including locking on to regional EU networks to exchange best practice and experience at handling the vast sums available from the EU regional and social fund kitty.

The First and Deputy First Ministers arrived in Brussels last night on their second joint visit outside of the North and hosted a reception for EU officials at the Executive’s office.

Their visit follows hard on last month’s successful trip to the US where Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness met President George Bush, Presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton and several leading business and political figures in Washington and New York.

They have been accompanied to Brussels by junior ministers Gerry Kelly and Ian Paisley Junior.

Stormont Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew will also join the Ulster delegation today for talks with European farming and rural development commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

Intensive funding for the North began in 1994 with the first PEACE programme, worth about €466m over five years. A second programme of aid funnelled more than €533m from Brussels to the North between 2000 and 2006.

Mr Paisley told Mr Barroso last year that the North needed not just financial help from the EU, but the help of experts to identify ways to get the most out of EU projects.