Ulster Unionist Leader Mike Nesbitt is seeking assurances that steps are being taken to minimise the impact of possible delays to EU funding programmes such as PEACE IV.
Mr Nesbitt said:
“There are concerns about the impact of delays in draft European funding programmes being approved by the European Commission.
"A modification of the EU budget needs to be adopted to allow the approval of Operational Programmes - the issue was debated in Strasbourg this week. During the debate Corina Cretu the new EU Commissioner for Regional Policy said that ‘the Commission will not compromise quality over speed’ in terms of adopting Operational Programmes.
“Whilst the Ulster Unionist Party fully supports that the process of assessing the draft programmes should be carried out thoroughly, we nonetheless have concerns about the impact of possible delays to EU Programmes being adopted and as a result implemented in Northern Ireland.
“The Ulster Unionist Party has tabled a number of questions at Stormont to both flag up the issue and to establish what contingencies are in place should delays to Programmes such as PEACE IV materialise.”