This is a three section Bill to amend the British-Irish Agreement Act, 1999, of 22 March 1999. It is a technical amendment to that Act, designed to ensure the change in the status of the follow-up programme to the current PEACE programme does not inhibit the North-South Special EU Programmes Implementation Body carrying out the functions envisaged for it in the original legislation.
The British-Irish Agreement Act, 1999, made provision inter alia in relation to the Agreement between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland establishing the North-South imple mentation bodies. The annex to that Agreement sets out the functions of each of the six implementation bodies to be established under the Agreement, while part 4 of Annex 1 sets out the functions of the Special EU Programmes Body and parts 4 and 7 of Annex 2 set out the arrangements to apply to the body. This body's functions, include, inter alia, functions that relate to both the current PEACE programme, which is a Community initiative, and to its successor, which is also categorised as a Community initiative in the Agreement and in the British-Irish Agreement Act, 1999.
Following the EU European Council in Berlin in March, it was decided, in the context of reducing the overall number of EU Community Initiatives, that the PEACE programme would henceforth be categorised as mainstream Structural Funding. Legal advice form the Office of the Attorney General and from the British-Northern Ireland legal advisers is that remedial action should be taken to ensure that the agreed role of the Special EU Programmes Body in regard to the PEACE programme, post-1999, is not ultra vires.To ensure legal certainty and as proof against possible legal challenge, the Irish and British Governments have agreed to effect a technical supplementary agreement, which will represent an interpretative statement on the previous Agreement. This has been effected through the exchange of letters between the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland as detailed in the Schedule to this Bill. The Agreement is intended to be a subsequent Agreement regarding the interpretation of the treaty for the purposes of Article 31(3) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The supplementary Agreement will ensure that, despite the decision of the Berlin European Council, the successor to the PEACE programme will not be a Community initiative, the original intention of both Governments that the Special EU Programmes Body will cover the successor programme will be carried into effect.
It is considered legally appropriate to bring forward primary rather than secondary legislation, as the provision for making regulations in section 5 of the British-Irish Agreement Act, 1999, relates to facilitating implementation of the existing Agreement and could not safely be used to give effect in domestic law to a technical amending Agreement.
Our objective must be to ensure that the Special EU Programmes Body can function concurrently with other implementation bodies as soon as the British-Irish Agreement comes into force. We must, therefore, have the amending legislation enacted prior to that date. The UK Government is making parallel statutory provision in its jurisdiction.
I wish to comment briefly on the functions agreed by the parties to the Agreement for the Special EU Programmes Body. The EU programmes involved in the present round of Structural Funds are the current Ireland-Northern Ireland INTERREG programme and the Special EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation. The programmes support a wide range of socio-economic activities in Northern Ireland and the Border counties. The programmes are jointly managed by the Department of Finance and the Northern Ireland Department of Finance and Personnel. A range of functions carried out at present by the two finance departments, including the management and monitoring of the programmes, will be transferred to the body.
The body will have significant functions in relation to post-1999 Structural Funds. It will advise the North-South Ministerial Council and the finance departments on the negotiation of the post-1999 Community Initiatives. It will prepare for the approval of the North-South Ministerial Council detailed programme proposals under the Community Initiatives and the successor to PEACE and will be involved in the negotiations on the new programmes with the European Commission. It will also be responsible for grant-making and other managerial functions in respect of INTERREG III, the cross-Border elements of other initiatives and the successor to the PEACE programme.
The body will also be directly responsible for a new proactive approach to the support and encouragement of an ever increasing range of North-South co-operative actions along the lines set out in the common chapter of the respective national plans. The body will provide a unique focus point to ensure maximum complementarity and added value in the delivery of cross-Border programmes. It will facilitate the drafting of cross-Border EU initiatives in a way that will ensure a coherent, cohesive, integrated and effective response to the problems and the challenges posed by the peace process.
I should emphasise that under the British-Irish Agreement Act, 1999, the operations of the devolved implementing funding agencies, for example, the Area Development Management and the Combat Poverty Agency, will continue to function as before. I compliment them on their efficiency and effectiveness in carrying out their functions. They will continue to play a full role in the development of northern and Border counties. EU funding in respect of the successor to the peace programme is expected to be some 500 million euros, of which 100 million will be spent in the southern Border counties. In addition, Ireland's share in the next round of Community initiatives is expected to be 150 million euros.
There are two elements in the current process to copperfasten the function of the special EU programmes body in relation to the successor to the current peace programme. The first is the exchange of letters between the two Governments agreeing to the interpretation of the Agreement. The text of these letters is included in a Schedule to the Bill. Section 1 provides for a definition of the Principal Act as the British Irish Agreement Act, 1999. Section 2(a) provides for the insertion of an additional definition in the Principal Act of the supplementary agreement, being the letters exchanged between the two Governments and included as a Schedule to the Bill.
Section 2(b) provides for an addition to section 23 of the Principal Act, which ensures that references to the functions of the special EU programmes body should be construed in accordance with the supplementary agreement and include the successor to the current peace programme. Section 3 gives the short title and collective citation and provides for the commencement.
The proposed legislative amendment will ensure legal certainty in the new round of Structural Funds to guard against legal challenge and, with the corresponding British statutory provision, will underpin the technical supplementary agreement. I commend the Bill to the House.