• An Irish News tweet stated that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has joined EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic in Belfast to announce €1 billion of EU funding for Northern Ireland.
  • EU funding for the scheme is being financed by the European Territorial Cooperation allocation of the European Regional Development Fund.
  • However, on a closer look, it’s clear that £730 million into the new PEACE PLUS programme is funded by the UK Government as part of their commitment in the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement. The fund also covers the border counties of Ireland.
  • The EU’s allocation is around €235m – with the rest of the money coming from the Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government.

On September 11 2023 The Irish News tweeted: 

“Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has joined EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic in Belfast to announce €1 billion of EU funding for Northern Ireland.”

However, while this money is coming via an EU scheme, not all of the money originated from the EU.

Around £730m of the €1.1bn fund comes from UK taxpayers as part of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement. Further financing comes directly from the Irish  governments and the Northern Ireland Executive.

  • What is the PEACE PLUS Programme?

The full title for the PEACE programme is the “EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Region of Ireland.”

The programme’s latest iteration – PEACE PLUS – is described as “the new cross-border funding Programme created to strengthen peace and prosperity within and between the border counties of Ireland and Northern Ireland”.  

It is operational in Northern Ireland and also extends to the border counties of Ireland: Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth.

This latest programme has been divided into six themes:

  • Theme 1 – Building Peaceful and Thriving Communities
  • Theme 2 – Delivering Socio-Economic Regeneration and Transformation
  • Theme 3 – Empowering and Investing in Our Young People
  • Theme 4 – Healthy and Inclusive Communities
  • Theme 5 – Supporting a Sustainable & Better Connected Future
  • Theme 6 – Building and Embedding Partnership and Collaboration
  • Where do the funds come from? 

The total amount allocated to the fund is €1.1 billion. In 2021, the UK Government announced that they would be

“[Investing] more than £730 million into the new PEACE PLUS programme to support economic stability, peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. This represents almost 75% of the total budget and delivers in full on the UK’s commitments to the programme.”

The then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis MP, described the UK as “the majority investor in this programme”. This financial commitment was made by the UK Government as part of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement. 

EU funding of €235 million is coming from the European Territorial Cooperation allocation of the European Regional Development Fund, while the remaining co-financing is by way of match funding for particular sub-themes from the Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government.

Development and management of EU North South programmes like PEACE PLUS is the responsibility of the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), a North South Implementation Body established under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. 

  • What about previous PEACE programmes? 

Before PEACE PLUS, there were the following programmes:

  • PEACE I (1995-1999) 
  • PEACE II (1999-2006) 
  • PEACE III (2007-2013) 
  • PEACE IV (2014-2020) 

Within this period, financial contributions of €1.6bn were made by the EU. While PEACE I (1995-1999) and PEACE II (2000-2006) received funding from all of the structural funds, PEACE III and PEACE IV (2007-2013 and 2014-2020) were funded solely by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).