The North's First Minister, Mr Trimble, and the Deputy First Minister, Mr Mallon, emerged from a meeting yesterday with the President of the European Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, confident that renewed EU special financial support for the peace process will be forthcoming.
The start of the meeting with Mr Santer was soured by what was variously described as a "row", a "snub", or a "misunderstanding", when it was explained to the North's three MEPs by Commission officials that they were not expected to take part.
Commission officials said it was not normal protocol for MEPs to accompany ministers when they are meeting the president.
Mr Trimble later told journalists he was "confident that by next summer a generous package for Northern Ireland would be forthcoming". He insisted they were still making the case for exceptional Objective One status for the North despite the objections of "one commissioner".
He said the Regional Affairs Commissioner, Ms Monika WulfMathies, who opposes any derogations from the structural fund eligibility criteria, was "just one commissioner, and the Commission was just one element in the decision".
Ms Wulf-Mathies is committed to further special funding for the North but is pressing for it to come instead in the form of a special "Interreg" fund to help develop cross-Border bodies, a prospect also hinted at by Mr Santer yesterday in his speech to the 80 Northern Assembly members here on a fact-finding mission.
Mr Mallon said they had to be flexible in their approach but the priority was to work on agreeing a strategic development programme which could encompass all potential areas of EU funding and demonstrate the North's capacity to use such funds to their full effect.
The incident with the MEPs underlined the significant change in the channels of communication between the North and Brussels that Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon were establishing on their visit.
In the past, the MEPs, Mr John Hume, Mr Jim Nicholson, and the Rev Ian Paisley, were used by the Commission to sound out opinion in the North on such issues as the shape of EU funding. But now the executive and Assembly will want their own direct contacts.
Mr Trimble said that broad agreement had been reached with the British government that the assemblies in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales would be treated in the "same way as the German Lander" in ministerial delegations to Council meetings in Brussels.
While he admitted the exact format had yet to be agreed, it would mean representatives of the regional assemblies being represented for the first time on the actual delegations instead of Westminster-based junior ministers from the Northern Ireland or other offices.
