EU uses lessons from North in peace-building tool kit

ST PATRICK’S day in Brussels is unavoidable.

Everybody around the EU quarter knows exactly what March 17 is, and many come sporting a bit of green, be it a tie or a scarf, or in the case of some a full rig-out.

If you miss the signs during the day, they are unmissable in the evening as every Irish pub in the city – and there are several – is full to overflowing with crowds spilling onto the streets.

This year even more than usual appeared to think they were Irish. So much so that the best known watering-hole in the EU district, Kitty O’Shea’s ran out of Guinness at 8pm.

Luckily the black stuff was flowing a few minutes away at the Government’s official reception hosted in the European Economic and Social Committee’s (EESC) offices.

It began sedately enough with ambassadors being perfect hosts.

Minister for State Martin Mansergh was on loan for the night and raised a few nervous chuckles when he revealed he had been speaking to In Bruges star Colin Farrell who confided that his real view of the old medieval town was that of his character in the film: “Where the f*** is Bruges? Where the f*** is Belgium?”

He explained, said Mr Mansergh, that he had to spend three months in the place, adding this had not thwarted fellow star Brendan Gleeson’s liking for the city.

It was all downhill after that with former IFA president and member of the EESC John Dillon taking to the floor at the first strains of a fiddle and having it all to himself with whichever lucky woman he persuaded to kick up heels for close to an hour. Eventually, the great and good joined in, stealing his thunder for a time.

Jillian Van Turnhout, well known as head of the Children’s Rights Alliance and former vice-president of the EESC, was a major mover in the organisation of the night and of Mr Mansergh addressing the little-known EU body made up of representatives of civil society from the member states. It was fitting that he addressed the Committee on “The EU and Cross-Border Co-operation on the island of Ireland”, focusing on the EU’s role in the Northern Ireland peace process.

Usually the focus is on money, of which €1.338 billion has been handed over by the EU over the past 15 years to underpin the peace process, together with many more millions to the International Fund for Ireland and more from the EU’s regional and other funds.

Soft power, lots of talking, slow processes, wide-ranging consultation, bottom-up tends to be the hallmark of much of the EU, and is usually greeted with derision by more testosterone-charged power houses. But it has proved to be very effective in bringing about a community moving towards peaceful coexistence in the North.

The committee’s opinion, following a fact-finding visit to the North, played a key role in ensuring the funding continued. The money, the neutral space for discussions provided by the EU institutions, the focus on involving those usually ignored, such as women and youth groups, victims and ex-prisoners and voluntary groups together with communities that straddle the border, have been credited with making a major contribution.

In what is an unprecedented grassroots involvement, more than half the population of the North has been involved in the PEACE 1 and 2 EU programmes.

The EU single market also played a role, eliminating the border for trade.

The EU is using the lessons it is learning in the North it in a “tool kit” designed to be carried in the briefcases of European peace-builders wherever they travel, in the words of Jane Morrice, who drew up the EESC’s report.