Direct EU funding for the cross-border Peace Plus programme has been included in a draft EU budget, a development welcomed by Sinn Féin MEP for Ireland South Kathleen Funchion.

The allocation was added to a so-called Negotiation Box by the Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council. Funchion said the move puts the central Brussels allocation back on the table at Council level, following her work to secure support in the European Parliament.

The original draft seven-year Budget had no central allocation for Peace Plus beyond 2028, even though the European Commission had made provision for the programme to continue. Without the central allocation, Ireland would have been left to fund the initiative at the expense of other funding streams, an outcome Funchion described as unacceptable.

Peace Plus is an EU-funded programme that supports peace and reconciliation projects in Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland.

Funchion, who serves as her political group’s spokesperson on the file containing Peace Plus, said she will work to maintain the support she has already secured. She called on the Irish government to use its incoming EU Council presidency to prioritise securing the programme’s future.