Hans-Gert Pottering said he plans to discuss with colleagues from Brussels what financial support could be provided for the controversial development.

This is even before any development has been agreed and amid unionist concerns that the centre will be turned into a “shrine to terrorism”.

Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister last night condemned Mr Pottering’s intervention and attacked the DUP, whom he accused of caving in to Sinn Fein’s pursuit of a terror museum. He pledged to try to thwart any bid to fund the venture via Brussels.

However, a DUP spokesman said Mr Allister was talking nonsense: there is no deal with republicans on a Maze shrine, he said, and the DUP does not support such a project.

Mr Pottering met First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness at Stormont yesterday morning and then addressed the Assembly.

“It is very useful to have a centre where you study the development of the reconciliation process,” he said.

“We should learn from history, from the good developments, from the bad developments.

“We should give the lessons we take from history to future generations and I would welcome the building of such a centre.”

He said he would consider with colleagues in the European Parliament what financial support could be provided.

Mr Pottering said local parties were cooperating on the basis of reconciliation and European values.

“The European Parliament will always be part of this peace process... which has been applied on the continent between Germany and France after the Second World War,” he added.

Mr Allister said: “The fact that today the joint First Ministers lobbied European Parliament president Hans-Gert Pottering in support of a so-called conflict transformation centre at the Maze confirms that in the recent DUP/Sinn Fein deal, the DUP has conceded the Maze shrine.”

The DUP said this was entirely wrong because there was no “lobbying” of Mr Pottering on the Maze and no deal.

However, Mr McGuinness said: “We had a wide-ranging discussion with him... and how we can contribute to the whole issue of conflict resolution with the establishment of the conflict resolution centre.”

The TUV leader insisted: “I have long warned this would happen, not least since Ian Paisley, when First Minister, sanctioned inclusion of the Maze project in the EU Task Force Report.”