PEACE III Programme

Each PEACE Programme aimed to build on the work of its predecessor. The economic development and seeding of civil society groups under PEACE I gave way to more focussed activities oriented towards reconciliation and cross-community contact in PEACE II. This increased focus on reconciliation in the PEACE III Programme, based on the research into the meaning and definition of reconciliation that had been carried out as part of the PEACE II Programme. PEACE III also sought to introduce more streamlined delivery mechanisms.

Strategic Aim: ‘to reinforce progress towards a peaceful and stable society and to promote reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Region’.

PEACE III projects intended to be larger scale and more strategic than in PEACE I and PEACE II, with an explicit focus on building positive relationships through cross-community actions and recognition of physical segregation as an issue to be addressed. 

This represented a move away from the general socio-economic development focus of the previous programmes. Consequently, delivery structures changed and became significantly more streamlined in PEACE III to include two implementation bodies (SEUPB and the Consortium of CRC and Pobal), when compared to 56 implementing bodies in PEACE II and 64 in PEACE I.

The conditions of the grant required funded organisations to keep supporting documents available for a period of 5 years following the closure of the Programme.

At the time of formalising the text of the Conditions of Grant, it was anticipated that the Programme would close in 2015.  Therefore, projects were advised to plan to keep documents until 31st December 2020 at the earliest.

In the event, the INTERREG IV and PEACE III Programmes officially closed in 2017.  This means that projects funded by INTERREG IV and PEACE III should keep all original supporting documents in respect of their projects available until the end of 2022 (December 2022).

Please note:

• State aid rules may require a longer document retention period, beyond December 2022.  It is the responsibility of funding recipients to clarify and adhere to any state aid rules.
• Projects should continue to retain documents if they are subject to legal proceedings or have been notified to do so by the European Commission.
• Any longer archiving periods as required by national law remain unaffected.

 
In the absence of any longer archiving obligations applying to your institution, funding recipients may from 31/12/2022 on, remove from your archives any documents related to the PEACE III and Interreg IV project.

The SEUPB recommends that Lead Partners share this information also with your project partners.