Hi °C | Lo °C Finance Minister and First Minister designate Peter Robinson has welcomed the signing off in Belfast of three new funding packages from the European Commission.
The regional development fund programmes, two of which will operate on a cross-border basis, are worth more than ¤1,100m and will run until 2013.
They are:
€614m sustainable competitiveness programme for Northern Ireland.
€333m north/south Peace III programme.
€256m Interreg programme for Northern Ireland, the Republic and Scotland.
The programmes were launched at a signing ceremony at the Stormont Hotel attended by Mr Robinson, the Republic's Finance Minister and Taoiseach designate Brian Cowen and the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Danuta Hübner.
Mr Robinson said that the three schemes complemented the aim of the Executive's Programme for Government to build a peaceful, fair and prosperous society with a growing, dynamic and innovative economy.
He said: "The sustainable competitiveness programme reflects the EU's Lisbon agenda for jobs and growth which is exactly what we want for our own economy. Most of the programme's resources are devoted to innovation in line with the priority which the Executive gave to this area in the budget through the creation of the Innovation Fund."
Mr Robinson welcomed the new Peace programme which he said was stronger than Peace II and said it was vital that it attracted the participation of both sections of the community.
The Minister said the Interreg cross-border fund was the only one of Northern Ireland's programmes to have been increased in budget.
He said: "Interreg will continue to support and encourage natural and practical co-operation between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
"I welcome the new dimension added by the inclusion of Scotland for the first time and the opportunity this provides for co-operation on an east-west basis."
Mr Robinson said all eligible organisations should be encouraged to explore how they could benefit from the full range of EU programmes.
