European Diary:The moment of truth for Northern Ireland's peace process has arrived.
Some time later today the Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain is expected to authorise fresh elections to the Stormont assembly in a move that could herald a move towards devolved government.
In Brussels the peace process rarely tops the political agenda. Last week however the European Parliament played its own small part when it hosted secondary students from Wellington College, Belfast, and Presentation secondary school, Tralee, Co Kerry.
The students spent three days together learning about the EU, visiting first World War battlefields and, most importantly, getting to know each other. They had plenty in common and got on very well, according to their teachers, yet there was one noticeable difference between the two groups: their knowledge of and attitude towards the EU.
"The EU has been very good for Ireland," said Saorlait Moore-Foley (16) from Tralee Presentation. "We got a lot of money from Brussels and we have been able to upgrade our roads, improve our transport system and build a lot of things with it."
For Una Kavanagh (15) the euro is one of the best things the EU has done for Ireland. "It makes it easier to travel abroad, except for Britain and Sweden, without having to change money all the time," she said.
However, Wellington College's students did not share the same positive view of the euro. "We'd prefer to keep the British pound," said Natalie Wilson (16). "You get more for your money. It's also tradition."
Asked what the EU had done for them, the Wellington students thought there weren't that many direct benefits from membership, nor was there much information available to them on the union. "Maybe you see the EU flag flying outside a hotel but that's it . . . We didn't know much about the EU until we began European studies this year," said one student.
Official surveys back these anecdotal responses. The latest Eurobarometer measuring attitudes to the union in the Republic found 78 per cent of Irish people believe EU membership is a good thing. This compares with just 39 per cent of British people who think they have benefited from membership.
Specific information on attitudes to the EU in Northern Ireland is more difficult to source. However, a joint study by Queen's University Belfast and the University of Ulster in 2002 found that 46 per cent of people thought EU membership was a good thing.
A special Eurobarometer in 2006 measuring regional attitudes to the EU in Britain found 86 per cent of Northern Irish people felt the EU increased opportunity for business - the highest of all regions surveyed. However it also noted that 36 per cent of people, the highest in all British regions, admitted they knew nothing about the union.
So what is behind this lack of knowledge and support for the EU in the North?
"Britain's rather reluctant attitude to EU membership has had a knock-on effect in Northern Ireland," says Eddie McVeigh, head of the European Commission office in Belfast. "Attitudes can be negative towards the euro and the Common Agricultural Policy and this reflects the UK-wide view found in newspapers like the Sun and Daily Mail."
Based on his visits to schools in Northern Ireland, Mr McVeigh says schools in nationalist areas tend to be more favourable than those in Unionist areas. He also notes that there are more entries to the European Youth Forum from nationalist schools.
"The EU is viewed as being remote in Northern Ireland and this is reflected in the situation where you have no correspondents from the major news organisations based in Brussels to carry news from a Northern Irish perspective," says Jim Allister, DUP MEP. He also cites an attachment to national identity and pure economics as factors that promote euroscepticism in the North compared to the Republic.
"Northern Ireland is a net contributor to the EU because the UK pays in a net £4 billion every year . . . whereas the Republic has done handsomely from the EU," he says, "so in terms of sheer economics, the EU is a drain on resources."
Yet this does not take into account the extra cash provided to Northern Ireland by the EU through the peace funds - €1.2 billion since 1989. Nor does it reflect the relative importance of the Cap to Northern Irish farmers, compared with British regions.
While the EU had found the right message for the Republic, it still has much to do to improve communication with Northern Ireland's citizens.