EPAG Minutes 14 May 2003

1. Apologies Apologies were noted.

2. Minutes from the last meeting The minutes of the last meeting in February were agreed as the meeting in April did not occur due to traffic problems among other things.

3. Matters arising James Laverty has joined NICVA as the European Information Officer. At a recent meeting of the Public Affairs Committee, a dim view of the over-bureaucratic nature of the PEACE II programme was expressed. Among attendees was Steve Pound, Labour MP for Ealing North, who expressed his surprise at the amount of administration involved. The committee agreed on this and, should there be a PEACE III programme, it would have to involve less administration and bureaucracy.

4. Programme Update

BSP Frances McCandless reported from the monitoring committee that DARD reported foot and mouth disease to be the major reason for the under-spend (zero spend in some areas) and N+2 problems. A publicity survey carried out by NI Omnibus Survey revealed only 8% of respondents knowing anything about BSP. DTZ are examining the lack of applications under priority 4 and DARD is in negotiations with the EC about changing the rural community strengthening to Measure 4.7 from 4.6. The Mid term evaluation revealed that there was no additional money outside departmental spending for pre-school places in Measure 3.4 as NICVA and NIPP contended. James Laverty is continuing to collate information on the 30 or so groups being funded under Measure 3.3 as it would be useful for these groups to compare notes.

PEACE II Seamus McAleavey reported that to date there have been 4721 applications, 1440 projects approved to a value of 300 million euro – 42% of the value of the programme which is considerably shorter than N+2 projections. SEUPB has made changes to the programme in shortening the application form, introducing a small grants form and ESF audits. SEUPB stated that they are happy with progress with the exception of the N+2 rule and Seamus pointed out that regardless of N+2 the situation and programme delivery was poor and the spend should be 70% as we are 4 ½ years into a five year programme. N+2 Rule Considering the N+2 Rule, an average level of spend of 25 million euro per month until the end of November 2003 is required. The actual current level of spend is six - eight million euro per month and much of this is advances and not actual spend. So far current spend is estimated at 43 million euro when 225 million euro must be spent by 31 December 2003. The end result is the EC taking back anywhere in the region of 105 – 115 million euro and there are ten measures with no recorded spend in them at all. This situation shows incompetence and is nothing short of a fiasco when so many groups from the community and voluntary sector are having applications rejected while there are measures with zero spend and the very real danger of having to return over €100 million. A possibility was that government departments provide receipts for eligible expenditure to save the loss under N+2. Although not ideal, this is the least worst option. In future the integrity of the programme must be protected and targeted to activities agreed by PEACE II. Things should also be a lot simpler in the future.

URBAN James Laverty reported for Paula Reynolds on the last URBAN meeting on 31 March 2003 . The main points related to a major under-spend thus far, £185,000 spent of a possible £858,000. Paula will write to the joint chairs to voice concern regarding this under-spend. There has been a lot of activity in the North Belfast region since the last monitoring committee meeting in October 2002.

INTERREG IIIA No representative for the sector appointed yet and this committee has still to meet.

EQUAL Details were obtained from Maureen Piggott. At the meeting, there were presentations from two of the Development Partnerships, ACCORD and Digital Step. So far seven DP’s have completed Action 1. Six have moved into Action 2. The NI Thematic Networking Groups have been established, the membership being ICTU, DP’s, DEL , OFMDFM, Equality Commission and PROTEUS. From the first meetings, NI is linking into UK and European TNG’s and is bidding to host the EU Thematic Network on employability. A mid-term evaluation is underway and an implementation report will be submitted to the Commission by June. A second call will not be likely to occur before late summer 2004. The committee was tasked with approving the Employment and ADAPT Closure reports.

LEADER+ Niall Fitzduff reported that at the last two meetings, equality issues had been raised and DARD will carry out an equality scheme on programmes. The equality balance on LAG’s and Monitoring Committees will be monitored also. Contracts have been issued to 11 of the 12 LEADER+ groups and the majority of them have websites established. N+2 is a major issue due to very low spend and the NI Programme is very narrow with particular focus on micro-business.

5. Regional Partnership Board Marie McCotter reported that so far the board is still essentially in the infancy stages and that precedence for chair had just been agreed. The effectiveness and best practice of LSP’s were discussed and a working group was established to look into the effectiveness of LSP’s in the delivery of PEACE II, another working group established to look at LSP membership and participation. A third working group was set-up regarding the approaches to the development and implementation of ILS. These meetings are represented by politicians, businesses, government departments, and trade unions and a list of members are held on the NICVA Website.

6. Replacement Representatives on Monitoring/Working Groups INTERREG IIIA: Vacant PEACE II: Frances McCandless Communication and Information Working Group: No one yet Environment Working Group: Jim Kitchen Approached Self Application Panel: Kate Hamilton – Newry CCG Appointed LEADER+: Niall Fitzduff to nominate

7. Future EU Funds Seminar proposal Frances McCandless and Paula Reynolds held meeting with Shaun Henry – SEUPB. Agreed venues and set-up for meetings – to feed into mid-term review and give C+V sector the opportunity to discuss the administration of the programme. Dates and chair of meetings to be finalised by SEUPB. Despite numerous contact no response back so postponed.

8. Northern Ireland Policy Manifesto – European Panel This panel is designed to discuss EU Topics but despite contacting various organisations, there have only been a few interested replies.

9. Any Other Business A Modern Regional Policy for the UK NICVA has produced a briefing paper on this Government document about future EC funding. The paper entitled stipulates that the UK government recommends that the ten new accession countries should receive 50% of the structural funds with the remaining 50% to existing members. Another part of the UK argument is to let the more affluent members of the EC be responsible and fund their own regional policy. Regarding Northern Ireland – although there is a paragraph which recognises PEACE, this document does not foster positive confidence for the future. There is a treasury guarantee as to “additional funding” from the treasury which would be equal to any potential EC funding. However in the past this “additionality” has found its way into general public expenditure with no extra funding available. There is also the threat that regional funding may be equal and NI gets the same as affluent parts of England and regional disparities not taken into account. Although the document does suggest streamlining the four structural funds into one fund, this is a largely euro-sceptic document. What this sector needs is PEACE III and not Treasury funding which has been tied to the NI budget and not additional. Concordia have sought a briefing from DFP on this document. The closing date for replies is July 4 and NICVA will have recommendations issued shortly. Compilation of PEACE II ProblemsThere have been a lot of problems for the C and V sector with PEACE II applications. Michael Briggs reported about letters of offers not sent and then receipts requested. This however was fairly endemic of a lot of complaints and incompetence of the administering bodies. It was suggested that members record these details and send these into James Laverty who will collate all the data to illustrate this lack of incompetence.

10. Date of Next Meeting(s) 11 September 2003 in NICVA Board Room at 2 pm .