Our friends in the north

Just before he stepped down as first minister, Ian Paisley told Sarah Collins that Europe has more than made up for its past neglect of his country

Last January, Ian Paisley came to Brussels bearing gifts – traditional Northern Irish potato cakes for José Manuel Barroso, which he presented to the commission president  in front of the gathered press. It was a change from the rabble-rousing MEP of old, the one who heckled the pope in the European parliament in the 1980s. This Paisley, as first minister of Northern Ireland, started to build a relationship with Brussels. During his one-year tenure in the power-sharing executive, he was ready to make friends.

“I think that Northern Ireland is coming into its own, and I think that the fact that the EU is interested in Northern Ireland is a question that should be answered. Why are they interested? Because they failed Northern Ireland very greatly at a time when they could have been more helpful. But those days are past. Let us not live in the darkness, let us come out into the light. And let us all get our shoulders to the wheel and make this Northern Ireland a place for people to look back on and say, ‘There you are, something good did come out of Europe.’”

Paisley’s praise for Europe is very squarely directed at Barroso, though, not least because the commission president was the man behind the task force that’s looking at how Northern Ireland is spending the EU’s money. “The president has been very helpful. The fact that he set up the task force and the fact that he came personally to see us I think was a very good omen. I think that fact gives us extra strength, especially when we’re negotiating matters that come down to the very coalface of our problems. I am very encouraged by the attitude he has taken.”

The EU’s Northern Ireland task force is brimming with suggestions on how to improve the economy. The commission’s regional policy chief, Danuta Hübner, certainly thinks there is a new momentum in the country. “There is a definite sense that we are entering a new phase. Peace as such is no longer the objective, but the consolidation of peace through generating prosperity and jobs.”

Paisley doesn’t disagree, and is delighted that Hübner is looking for a Northern Irish cabinet member at the moment. And although his eyes are certainly looking across the Atlantic in terms of investment in the region, Paisley remains faithful to the EU. “The EU is very important to us because we’re part of that union. Why shouldn’t we look to home first?”

Of course, there is still a mountain to climb, as Paisley admits, but there is encouragement coming from all sides. The EU is still firmly behind the country, and for Hübner, there is very good reason to be so. “Northern Ireland’s leaders are determined to give something back to Europe as well as to take. Times have changed and Northern Ireland is engaged in what most people feel is an irreversible process. Expectations are high in the population and among business leaders.”