Northern Ireland has received approval from the European Parliament to continue receiving funding as an EU member, even if Britain leaves the EU.
In another blow to Brexiteers, MEPs in a key parliament committee have approved cohesion funding of hundreds of millions of euro for the North past 2020.
The United Kingdom is due to formally leave the EU next March, with a transition period of two years to follow after that.
The Regional Development Committee has decided that enabling Northern Ireland to continue participating in the EU’s general cohesion funds after 2020 would benefit its economic and social development, particularly in disadvantaged and rural areas.
A spokesman said: “To sustain peace and ensure the region’s stability, EU-supported cross-border and inter-community schemes, the Northern Ireland Peace Programme and the Interreg programmes, should also continue after 2020.
“EU funding for Northern Ireland should stay at its current level after 2020 and the EU should continue to reach out to both communities there, by playing an active role in managing it, “the approved text agreed said..
“Finally, MEPs consider it essential that the people of Northern Ireland, and in particular young people, should continue to have access to economic, social and cultural exchanges across Europe,” the spokesman added.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has accused the UK of stalling progress in Brexit negotiations and warned of the consequences of not striking a deal on the border.
“It is our view that we haven’t seen sufficient progress from the UK in the last couple of months.
“We had a good political agreement in December, we had further progress in March where they accepted there had to be a backstop as part of the withdrawal agreement.
“But since then, quite frankly, progress has stalled, and what I want all of Europe to do is to continue to stand behind Ireland and say to the UK they have to honour the commitments they made.
“And you know the UK is a country that’s talking about going global, talking about making trade deals all over the world.
“How could anyone make a deal with a country that doesn’t stand by its commitments?”
The Taoiseach made his remarks ahead of a visit to Dublin by European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier this weekend.
