Allister warns of trends in Regional Policy
01 October 2005
Speaking in a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, DUP MEP JIM ALLISTER, warned against attempts to downgrade national entities and control through EU regional policy. Focusing on a key proposal in a report before the Parliament, which promotes "territorial integration", Mr Allister declared himself resolutely opposed to attempts to promote geographical entities, as alternatives to nation states, as single targets for regional aid. Applying the lesson to Northern Ireland he insisted that it must be seen and treated as part of the UK, not as part of the island of Ireland.
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
"This report does not impress me for three reasons:
1 - The EU has no power in the field of spatial planning, yet presumes to chart a course for such on the back of the dead Constitution.
2 - Territorial cohesion is being advanced for the political objective of by-passing and diminishing the entity of the nation state. It aims for "territorial integration". I do not want my part of the UK treated instead as part of the territorial whole of the island of Ireland. That would offend and defy the settled political will of Northern Ireland's people and the EU must act within the parameters of that reality.
3 - Within the context of Cohesion Funding talk of territorial cohesion in my region is somewhat ironic, since we were excluded from Cohesion Funding from its inception, whilst our neighbouring territory was included. The real route to cohesion was equality of access to funding, but that was denied to Northern Ireland, while the Republic of Ireland benefited to the tune of over 2B euro. Thus, it is so much nonsense to now talk grandly about securing equality of treatment between territories. The EU had its chance to give such equality of funding to Northern Ireland for necessary infrastructure but it failed by making the threshold for access to Cohesion Funding national statistics, instead of regional need.
In terms of regional policy, I can however welcome the suggestion that more than GDP should inform the need for development in a region. Such is long overdue."
