HomeCouncils of the Metropolitan Area (COMET)
COMET is a partnership of the six economic development units of local councils within the Belfast Metropolitan Area. This includes:
- Belfast City Council
- Lisburn City Council
- Carrickfergus Borough Council
- Castlereagh Borough Council
- Newtownabbey Borough Council
- North Down Borough Council.
What does COMET do?
COMET meets on a monthly basis to:- look at opportunities for collaboration on economic development issues
- identify sub-regional projects that address the region’s needs
- share experience in implementation of local economic development plans
- distribute good practice and relevant conference and training opportunities.
Initiatives
Successful initiatives from the project include:- The Connect Project
Funded through Peace II (Outward and Forward Looking Region Measure) this exchange project looked at how governance impacted on the social, economic and environmental development in Rybnik (Poland), Stockholm (Sweden), Vilnius (Latvia) and Valencia (Spain).
- COMET Plato Project
This initiative broadens the Belfast project to include manufacturing companies throughout the region. A total of 21 companies have been recruited and they will benefit from independent company analysis, one-to-one mentoring, as well as thematic seminars and training in response to identified needs. This project will run until September 2009.
- Best practice
We hosted visits from elected members from the Nitra region of Slovakia to find out about best practice in the implementation of funding from the European Regional Development Fund.
- Interreg IIIA (2000 - 06) and Interreg IVA (2007 - 13)
The Interreg programme was introduced in 1991 to provide support for cross-border economic development in the less developed border regions of the EU.
