Comet (Councils of the Metropolitan Area) was established in 2002 as a vehicle for collaboration on a range of policy, social, economic and environmental issues between the six local authorities within the Greater Metropolitan of Northern Ireland, namely Belfast, Carrickfergus, Castlereagh, Lisburn, Newtownabbey and North Down. In addition the network supports the sharing of policy responses at a regional level as well as accessing best practice models from existing networks, for example the Northern Ireland Local Economic Development Forum and Eurocities. Primarily the focus for collaboration to date has been in respect to local and regional economic development opportunities.

In 2002 discussions began with the Special European Union Programmes Body (SEUPB) in respect to the participation of the Comet region within the Interreg IIIA Programme. The Comet region was one of only two regions (North East being the other) not represented through the existing three Interreg IIIA partnerships established to deliver Measures 1.1 -1.3 of the Programme. The absence of an Interreg Partnership in the region was one of the factors impeding the active participation of Comet in the Interreg IIIa programme. The mid-term evaluation of Interreg IIIA carried out in November 2003 stated:

‘there is an opportunity to broaden the scope of the number of partnerships involved in implementing Interreg IIIa, for example through the Core and Comet partnerships’.

Comet submitted an application for SEUPB in 2004 for technical assistance in order to undertake a development programme which would ultimately help to position Comet in respect to the Interreg IIIa programme. Members of the Comet network were also keen to position the region post 2006 so as to take advantage of future European Funds provided through the measures proposed by the Commission in its draft proposals produced in February 2004. This application was successful and a Development Plan was created and a partnership established on existing Interreg IIIa guidelines promotion of the Comet Interreg IIIa initiative began.