Assembly Committee Holds Its First Meeting Outside Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) today (Thursday 10 June) held its first Committee meeting outside Northern Ireland during a visit to Brussels.

Committee Chair, Danny Kennedy, MLA said: “The OFMDFM Committee understands how important it is to engage early with the European Institutions. This will help us to come up with effective solutions to shared problems [1].

“For that reason we have taken formal evidence from all the Governments of the trio of presidencies of the Council of the European Union [2] on their priorities and in particular those priorities in relation to combating poverty and social exclusion. The Committee has a particular interest in this area and has completed an extensive report on child poverty. This is also the European Year for combating poverty and social exclusion.

“The fact that our meeting drew a lot of interest from other European parliaments and institutions is testament to how important it is that we work together across Europe to find common approaches to addressing issues that transcend boundaries.”

The Committee also took the opportunity to meet with representatives of the Basque and Bavarian regional parliaments to share experiences and best practice for working in Europe.

ENDS