How Interreg works for an Irish partner
Interreg is not one programme, and this page is not PEACE PLUS. Ireland’s €293m share under Article 9(3) covers the cross-border strand — PEACE PLUS, €235m, which has its own entry with its own bodies — and three transnational programmes: North West Europe €32.77m, Northern Periphery and Arctic €13.15m, and Atlantic Area €13m. Ireland also takes part in the interregional programmes — Interreg Europe, URBACT and ESPON — which are financed from a central EU envelope and never appear in a national share. Two things an Irish partner must plan for: you find 20–40% of your own costs, because Interreg co-financing does not reach 100%, and your expenditure must be verified by a first-level controller before it can be claimed.
ERDF — European Territorial CooperationReg. (EU) 2021/1059 (Interreg) · CPR Reg. (EU) 2021/1060€293m is Ireland’s share for cross-border and transnational cooperation · the interregional programmes are funded centrally and not allocated to Member States
One programme, too many disconnected records. Delivery notes, partner decisions, expenditure, results and reporting evidence often sit in different places.
How the money reaches an organisation
Every level here can be asked for its own process map. That is the point of yours.
European Commission — DG REGIO
Approves each Interreg programme separately under Reg. (EU) 2021/1059 and accepts its accounts. Article 9 splits the money by strand: cross-border, transnational, interregional and outermost.
A different Managing Authority for every programme
PEACE PLUS: the Special EU Programmes Body. North West Europe: the Hauts-de-France region in Lille. Northern Periphery and Arctic: the Västerbotten County Administrative Board in Sweden. Atlantic Area: the North Regional Coordination and Development Commission in Portugal. You deal with the programme you applied to, not with an Irish authority.
Joint Secretariat of your programme
Runs the call, advises applicants, assesses the applications and services the monitoring committee that decides. Every programme has one, and it is your day-to-day contact.
First-level control — who verifies your spending
This differs by programme and is the thing Irish partners most often get wrong. For the transnational and interregional programmes Ireland runs a centralised system: a national controller is assigned to you. For PEACE PLUS the Lead Partner procures and pays for the Controller, except in Investment Areas 1.2 and 6.2, where Pobal does the verification.
👉 Your organisation sits at this level
Lead Partner and project partners
One organisation leads the partnership and is answerable to the programme for all of it; each partner is answerable for its own spending. Your costs are only claimable once your controller has verified them.
The communities and sectors the project is for
The people on both sides of a border or across several countries who use what the partnership produces. In Interreg language the partners are the beneficiaries; these are who the work is for.
Audit Chain
Built upward from your own records, and the bodies differ by programme. Your invoices and proof of payment → your first-level controller verifies the expenditure (Reg. (EU) 2021/1059 Art. 46) → the Lead Partner consolidates and claims → the programme’s Managing Authority and Joint Secretariat approve, and its accounting function draws up the accounts and claims from the Commission → the programme’s Audit Authority, assisted by a Group of Auditors with one member per participating country, gives the annual audit opinion → the European Commission accepts the accounts. For PEACE PLUS specifically, the Audit Authority sits in the Department of Public Expenditure in Ireland, outside the Special EU Programmes Body, and the Group of Auditors includes the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland. Alongside, not above: the European Court of Auditors and OLAF.
Process maps under this programme
Where this came from
Human reviewed2026-09-08Automatically checkedMonitoring pendingCurrent source statusAutomatic baseline required
- Regulation (EU) 2021/1059 (Interreg) — Art. 9 the split by strand and the Member State shares, Art. 46 control — Official Journal of the European UnionA · Governing source checkedAuto: review needed
- Analysis of Irish participation in transnational and inter-regional Interreg programmes 2021–2027 — the programmes Ireland is eligible for, and Ireland’s centralised first-level control — Southern Regional Assembly, March 2026B · Official operational guidance checkedAuto: pending
- PEACEPLUS Programme Manual, version 12 — §1.7.5 controllers, §1.7.7 audit authority and Group of Auditors, §1.7.8 Pobal as Intermediary Body — Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), February 2026A · Governing source checkedAuto: pending
- Parliamentary Question on EU Funding — Ireland’s European Territorial Cooperation allocation — Houses of the Oireachtas, 29 February 2024C · Official secondary sourceAuto: pending
Read against the source on 2026-09-08. This is the human-reviewed version.
What that check changed: This entry was a second copy of PEACE PLUS. A correction on 2 September changed the budget line and nothing else, so every body below the EU tier stayed PEACE PLUS’s under an Interreg-wide title — and two of them were the wrong way round: the Audit Authority sits in the Department of Public Expenditure in Ireland and the Group of Auditors is supported from the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland, not the reverse. SEUPB was also called the Certifying Authority, a term the Common Provisions Regulation abolished for this period; it is the Accounting Function. Rebuilt on 8 September as a real Interreg entry: the €293m is Ireland’s share for the cross-border and transnational strands under Article 9(3), the interregional programmes — Interreg Europe, URBACT and ESPON — are financed centrally and never appear in a national share, and the three transnational programmes are named with their own Managing Authorities, which are in France, Sweden and Portugal. Two things an Irish partner needs and the old entry never said: you find 20–40% of your own costs, and your spending must be verified by a first-level controller — a national controller for the transnational and interregional programmes, a controller the Lead Partner procures for PEACE PLUS, and Pobal for Investment Areas 1.2 and 6.2.