Agenda and minutes

Apologies for inability to attend were reported from Councillors Jones, McCarthy and Mac Giolla Mhín.

The minutes of the meetings on 6th and 20th September were taken as read and signed as correct.  It was reported that those minutes had been adopted by the Council at its meeting on 1st October. 

No declarations of interest were reported.

            The committee reminded that, at its meeting on 24th August, 2012, it had agreed a set of recommendations concerning the laying of wreaths at the Cenotaph at the City Hall during the Remembrance Day event. 

            The Democratic Services Manager reported that the recommendations which had been agreed were to set in place a policy for dealing with additional requests from Honorary Consuls wishing to be included in a list of those entitled to lay a wreath during the Remembrance Day event.  The Royal British Legion had, at that time, expressed concerns at the number of organisations included in the event, which resulted in a particularly long ceremony which some of the more elderly participants had found to be arduous.  The Committee had agreed that, in order to accommodate new requests, a single additional invitation would be issued to the Honorary Consuls on a strictly rotational basis, ensuring all Consuls were fairly treated, and the attending Honorary Consul would be asked to lay a wreath on behalf of all the other Honorary Consuls in Northern Ireland. 

            The Democratic Services Manager advised that a request had been received from the Honorary Consul of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for the Committee to reconsider the policy and allow him, as a representative of a sovereign country which had participated in the Allied Forces during the War, to lay a wreath on behalf of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.  A meeting had been held with the President of the Royal British Legion and the position of the Legion had changed from that in 2012 when the Committee has established the existing policy.  The Legion would now request the Committee to consider permitting the Honorary Consuls of both Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and of Malta to participate in the Remembrance Day event in their own right and not to form part of a policy of rotating such privilege amongst a number of Honorary Consuls.  The Legion was of the opinion that to accede to the request would only add a few minutes to the overall length of the service and that that was reasonable given the accredited service of people from those Countries during the War. 

            He pointed out that, should the Committee be minded to accede to the request, that could set a precedent should further requests be received from other Honorary Consuls, although the Royal British Region had indicated that the view of the Northern Ireland Consular Association was that such requests were unlikely to be forthcoming. 

            The Committee agreed to accede to the request from the Honorary Consul of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which was supported by Royal British Legion, and to amend the existing policy to allow the Honorary Consuls from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and from Malta to be included in future Remembrance Day events.

(Mr. J. McGrillen, Director of Development, attended in connection with this item)

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1       Relevant Background Information

1.1     In the course of the last two months, consultations have been issued on the draft EU structural funds programmes for the new programming period (2014-2020). These are the Investment Growth and Jobs Programme (European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF)); and the Rural Development Programme.  The deadline for responses to these consultations is 21 October 2013.

1.2     The consultations for the Peace and Interreg programmes have not yet been issued.  It is understood that these consultations are likely to be issued in the coming month. 

1.3     Members will be aware that Belfast City Council, through the EU Unit, has been lobbying to maximise the drawdown of the future NI EU mainstream funds for the period 2014-2020.  These programmes offer huge potential to the council as a means of resourcing corporate priorities identified in successive strategies and plans including the Investment Programme, the Masterplan and the forthcoming Integrated Economic Strategy and Skills and Employability plans.

1.4     Chief Officers have asked for work to be undertaken to identify a pipeline of projects to form a draft integrated plan for submission to government departments, in order to try and secure ring-fenced EU funds at the outset of the new programming round.  A meeting took place with a range of partner organisations on 23 September 2013 to discuss draft project ideas and additional work is now being carried out to substantiate these proposals.  Copies of the proposed activities will be presented to Members for endorsement before any formal submission to DFP and other departments.

1.5     Lessons learned from the current programme include the need to invest in management resources to develop and deliver successful projects as well as the need for early engagement with partner organisations in order to ensure that activities complement wider offer and do not duplicate existing provision.  There is also significant focus on demonstrating the need and demand for proposed activities and on ensuring value for money.   

2        Key Issues

2.1     Proposed responses to each of the following programmes are outlined in appendices I, II, III;

1)     European Regional Development Programme (ERDF)

2)     European Social Fund ( ESF)

3)     Rural Development Programme ( RDP)

2.2     There are a number of common themes across all the responses.  These include:

·        Identifying the opportunity within the programmes for integrated, area-based activities aligned to EU, national, regional and local strategies to promote and support economic regeneration.  The leadership role of councils in developing these plans is highlighted

·        Support for integration across separate funding streams in recognition of the multi-faceted nature of the economic challenges in the region

·        Support for greater simplification and alignment of administration systems across the programmes

·        The need to put in place mechanisms to encourage and support access to the range of interventions by SMEs, given the complex and confusing range of provision that is potentially available

·        A proposed “commissioning” approach for the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.