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The EU Commissioner Danuta Hubner is due in Belfast on Monday, when she will meet our two new leaders in waiting, Peter Robinson and Brian Cowen. Her taskforce on Northern Ireland published its report this week, which regular blog reader Noel Adams brought to my attention. It contains a few suggestions about future trends for the economy, but one which caught my eye was the notion of Northern Ireland hosting an "institutional facility for conflict resolution".

The taskforce report says "the Northern Ireland authorities have expressed an interest in
promoting the development of a facility to provide research and advice on the theme of
conflict resolution. The role of such a facility, its organisation and sources of finance are
under active consideration in Northern Ireland, taking account of the fact that there are
already existing initiatives in this direction within the region itself and in Ireland. The
Commission services have recognised the potentially valuable contribution which the
experience of the Northern Ireland peace process could make in conflict prevention,
resolution and peace building in other parts of the world, and have responded positively to a
request from the authorities to examine together the ways forward. For example, within the
context of the ongoing policy dialogue between the European Union and third countries and
the rules that govern the current support programmes as well as in the specific context of the
dialogue with countries such as China, Russia and Brazil on regional policy, the Commission
will draw attention to the specific contribution of the PEACE programmes to social and
economic development. It could be envisaged that this would give rise to cooperation with
third countries specifically on peace and reconciliation issues as promoted under the PEACE
programmes and which could benefit from expertise gathered within Northern Ireland."

The full report can be found

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