Robinson holds EU task force meeting with European Commisioner

Finance Minister, Rt Hon Peter Robinson, MP, MLA met today with EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Danuta Hübner.

The meeting, at Parliament Buildings, Stormont was held to discuss how the special EU Commission Taskforce, announced by European President Jose Manuel Barroso on May 1, will be established.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Robinson said: “President Barroso’s personal commitment for a European Commission Taskforce for Northern Ireland is a very exciting opportunity for the Province. Northern Ireland has benefited significantly from Europe over the years, and we want that relationship to develop and continue in the long term.

“We also want to ensure that Northern Ireland both contributes to, and benefits from, the wide range of European programmes and initiatives.

“The key role of the President’s Taskforce will be to facilitate that; if you like, to give us an introduction or ‘foot in the door’.

“This is a long-term project, with the current EU programming period running to 2013. The work of the Taskforce will seek mostly to help us achieve our economic goals where, in line with the Lisbon jobs and growth strategy, we want Northern Ireland to have a dynamic, sustainable, enterprising and innovative economy to which everyone in the Province can contribute and benefit from."

Mr Robinson explained that the President’s Taskforce will look at how best Northern Ireland can participate in the EU initiatives, financial and non-financial, that can assist in this drive. It will cover a broad range of policy issues, including sustainable regional development, employment, rural development, fisheries and environment:

“Commissioner Hübner and I discussed the practicalities of delivering on this and how to get started as quickly as possible. We agreed that by the end of the year we would complete a stocktake study of the available EU initiatives and how these can meet Northern Ireland’s key economic needs. We also agreed that we would also seek to finalise the Rural Development, Fisheries and Structural Fund Programmes and make arrangements to extend our 'exchange of officials' programmes.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

President Barroso’s announcement following his visit to the First Minister and Deputy First Minister on 1 May 2007 indicated that a special Taskforce would be set up in the European Commission to help Northern Ireland to get maximum benefits from European programmes and experience from across the European Union to further our economic aims and promote growth, innovation and opportunity.

The First Minister and Deputy First Minister have made it clear that one key output to achieve from the President’s visit was to have an ongoing and developing relationship with the President and Commission at political and operational levels over the long-term. A Presidential Taskforce is fairly unique and represents a considerable opportunity for Northern Ireland.

Danuta Hübner has been a member of the European Commission since May 1, 2004. She is the Commissioner responsible for Regional Policy and the President has asked her to lead the Commission Taskforce in cooperation with other Commission services.

Professor Hübner, a highly-respected economist, was Poland’s Minister for European Affairs from 2003-04.