Over 100 Members and senior officials of the New Northern Ireland Assembly are to visit the Parliament and the Commission at Brussels from November 3rd to 6th. The programme includes meetings with Parliament President Jose-Maria Gil Robles and Commission President Jacques Santer. The visitors will also meet Commissioners Brittan, Wulf-Matheis, Flynn, Kinnock, Commission Secretary General Carlo Trojan and MEPs Paisley, Nicholson and Hume.
The programme, which is organised by the CEC Office in Belfast, is intended according to Jim Dougal (head of office) to give the Assembly Members an "opportunity to focus on the opportunities which Northern Ireland's membership of the European Union presents, how the Executive and Assembly can have an input to European policy processes, including negotiation of the next round of Structural Fund spending, and how Northern Ireland can best work with the administrative heart of Europe".