A report by Fine Gael MEP Senator Jim Higgins allocating €60 million to the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) over the period 2007-2010 was adopted by the European Parliament yesterday.
However, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said he was "disappointed" that MEPs also voted to change the legal basis for allocating the money.
Mr Higgins expressed his gratitude for "the investment that Europe has made to the economic regeneration of Northern Ireland, the Border counties in the Irish Republic, and the Northern Ireland peace process".
He pointed out that the decision to change the legal basis of the report from Article 308 of the European Community Treaty (providing for consultation by the Council of Ministers with the parliament) to Article 159 (co-decision powers for the parliament), came about as a result of a unanimous opinion from the parliament's legal affairs committee.
However, in a statement issued in Dublin, Mr Ahern said he found it "rather difficult to understand why the parliament has chosen to put institutional concerns ahead of the immediate interests of the fund".
