Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus this week met with EU officials to discuss the decline of the Northern and Western regions of Connacht, Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.
He spoke with European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira (main pic), and Chair of the European Parliament’s Regional Development Committee, Younous Omarjee.
Speaking after the meetings, MacManus described the engagements as ‘productive’.
“Firstly, I was struck by how knowledgeable both parties were in terms of the specific challenges facing our region,” he said.
“Importantly, they made it very clear their willingness to help. These were undoubtedly very productive engagements.”
Prior to the commission meetings, MacManus met with various regional bodies to inform the basis of his Brussels engagements.
“In recent weeks I met with a number of regional stakeholders, including the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, Western Development Commission, Ireland West Airport, Atlantic Economic Corridor Business Forum, University of Galway and the recently established Atlantic Technological University, to hear their views on how these regional development challenges can be addressed. These engagements directly informed my discussions with Commissioner Ferreira and Chair Omarjee. So it was very much a direct grassroots connection to the commission.”
In the Commission meetings, he ‘strongly defended’ the needs of the region from infrastructure like TEN-T inclusion and investment on green and digital technologies.
“I also drew attention to the fact Ireland hasn’t drawn down a cent of the €900m pot of the EU’s Recovery and Resilience fund. I also managed to secure several concrete actions from Mr Omarjee to draw specific attention to the region.
“In my meeting with Commissioner Ferreira, she spoke passionately about the PEACE programme and the need for Britain to implement its side so the PEACE PLUS can start to take shape. It was heartening to hear her commitment to this programme as traditionally it has offered excellent development opportunities to our region.”
