During his two days’ working visit to Dublin, Minister Valentin Tserovski met with Amon O’Queev, Minister for Regional Development of the Republic of Ireland

During his two days’ working visit to Dublin, Minister Valentin Tserovski met with Amon O’Queev, Minister for Regional Development of the Republic of Ireland. Minister Tserovski briefed his counterpart on his Ministry’s regional policy priorities and the progress of the EU accession negotiations on Chapter 21, Regional Policy. Mr. O’Queev is the descendant of a long line of professional politicians. His grandfather was the first President of the Republic of Ireland. The meeting focused on regional policy and Ireland’s exceptionally successful experience in the absorption of EU structural funds during the last 10–15 years. During this period, from being the poorest Member State, Ireland moved up in per capita income above the EU average. In Minister O’Queev’s view this has been due to a good combination of infrastructure development and human resource development policies. He emphasised that Ireland’s initial emphasis had been on investment in education and training, and high technologies. Regarding absorption control, Ireland has a system of multiannual appraisal and channelling of resources to the best performing agencies. In response to Minister Tserovski’s question, Minister O’Queev emphasised the non-partisan political consensus reached in his country on EU funds spending priorities. Later, Valentin Tserovski viewed the northern Dublin-Belfast Motorway M1 completed in June this year. Experts of the contractor, Northconsult, briefed the Minister on the financial arrangements for the project (38% Cohesion Fund, 62% National Budget), the technical parameters of the 21 km section and the problems that had to be overcome in its development. [Caption] Minister Valentin Tserovski and Mr. Amon O’Queev, Minister for Regional Development of the Republic of Ireland Public Relations and International Cooperation Directorate