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we look to it to challenge the uk government to ensure that the private sector which surely must be providing the major impetus for structural funds expenditure is involved in the planning stage |
finally we ask that the commission ensures that structural fund monies are spent in a way which is transparent |
too much of what takes place within this parliament is not transparent |
this is one area in which i believe the commission can be a very great friend to wales |
mr president our committee views these issues very differently and to start i will speak from the point of view of research |
we see it as a very positive sign that in her own conclusions the rapporteur has taken account of our committee' s proposal that the cohesion fund countries should broaden the research infrastructure by locating universities and colleges in such a way that they would serve those who live in undeveloped regions better than now and make it easier for educated people to remain in their home districts |
this will be possible with action on the part of governments and such decentralisation of higher education will be an unquestionably useful policy in evening out development |
another matter we would like to address specifically from the point of view of industrial policy is that we would have liked the commission to pay more attention to the effects of services electronic commerce and the growing use of the internet when they were planning the coordination of structural funds and cohesion funds |
poverty and wealth used to depend more on means of livelihood |
the rich areas were those where there were jobs in industry but today those areas might have become a burden and they may well be poor meaning we also have to invest in new sectors of industry such as electronic production as i might call it and the production of services because they are the industries of the future |
in my opinion the committee drafting the report has not taken sufficient account of this so on behalf of the committee on industry external trade research and energy i would draw the commission' s attention to this issue |
finally as the committee representing energy we would have liked the issue of support for renewable energy resources from cohesion and regional development funds to have been emphasised still more thus through a process of coordination increasing the use of renewables so that the scant funding resources in the energy programme might have been compensated by means of these more substantial sums |
mr president i would very much like to thank mrs schroedter for the work she has done on this and to explain to colleagues that i am speaking for my colleague mrs flautre who followed this for the committee on employment and social affairs but who is unfortunately ill |
i would like to draw people's attention to amendments nos 1 and 2 which were agreed by the committee on employment and social affairs but not accepted by the committee on regional policy transport and tourism |
these amendments deal with the social economy and the need to provide social risk capital and support financially local schemes to develop employment opportunities and strengthen social cohesion |
in the past this parliament has viewed the social economy as an important potential provider of employment |
these amendments also fit in with this parliament's view that social exclusion is a serious issue needing constructive action |
we hope that those considering rejection of these amendments have very powerful reasons to offer to both parliament and their citizens who are seeking employment |
in her report mrs flautre also drew attention to an area where coordination is sorely lacking yet desperately needed |
the commission proposals refer to the four pillars of employment strategy and the five fields of action of the european social fund |
but the lack of specific guidelines here is particularly to be regretted as the idea of linking social fund assistance to the employment strategy will be put into effect for the first time during the 20002006 programme |
it could be said that the omission gives the impression that the commission too has no idea how to provide maximum coordination between european social fund assistance which is subject to review after three and a half years and the member states' annual national plans for employment |
we hope that the commission can reassure us that this was an oversight which is now being dealt with constructively |
mr president commissioner the proposal presented by the commission in accordance with its mandate is a reasonable starting point for the committee on agriculture and rural development |
i would like to point out however that this starting point indicates to us the challenges which face us maintaining a population in rural areas given the changes taking place in all types of economic activity owing to agriculture' s increasing lack of importance amongst the various sources of income for rural society |
this as well as the deficiencies in the networks of infrastructures and services and a generally very low level of employment which furthermore is seasonal and lacks diversity exacerbates the exodus from rural areas |
the consequences do not inspire hope |
it is the young people who are disappearing who are getting an education and finding work outside of the rural areas all of which has an unfavourable effect on those areas |
this lack of infrastructure is also an obstacle to the establishment of companies and the creation of jobs |
we have to remember that rural areas represent almost four fifths of the territory of the european union |
agriculture only provides 55 of employment in the union |
furthermore three quarters of our farm workers are parttime and require supplements to their incomes |
for this reason one of the most important and essential objectives which we should set in the european union is to make efforts to create new jobs in rural areas outside of the agricultural sector in sectors such as rural tourism sport culture heritage conservation the conversion of businesses new technologies services etc |
however even though the role of agriculture is not exclusive it is still essential not only to prevent economic and social disintegration and the creation of ghost towns but also because farmers play a fundamental role in managing the land in preserving biodiversity and in protecting the environment |
therefore we support the establishment of an agricultural and rural development policy which is consistent with the objectives we have set we want rural areas at the dawn of the 21st century to be competitive and multifunctional both with regard to agriculture and with regard to opening up to the diversity of nonagricultural activities |
it is important to prioritise general criteria for land planning and demographic equilibrium and to bear in mind the conclusions of the committee on agriculture and rural development on the five fundamental issues which have been only partly taken up by the committee on transport regional policy and tourism in its points 16 and 17 |
in conclusion i would ask the commission to take these five points into account when establishing the conclusions on the four pillars because i believe that for the european union maintaining the population in rural areas must be one of the priority objectives |
mr president commissioner i would like to begin by thanking mrs schroedter the rapporteur for her work i think that this work has been carried out extremely well |
i would also like to thank her for her willingness to enter into dialogue with the other political groups when compromise formulas have needed to be reached in the face of this avalanche of amendments and perhaps there are more of them than we expected but which genuinely reflect the importance of the report we are now discussing |
we feel that it is important that the commission takes account of the conclusions adopted by this parliament at least in spirit because at this stage it might seem as though what we are doing here is a useless exercise and nothing but hot air |
the truth of the matter though is that we believe and this is also shown in the way the conclusions have been drafted that the commission must take account of what is adopted by this parliament particularly in the face of an interim revision of these directives |
in our amendments we have stated the importance of the necessary synergies being produced between the structural funds the cohesion fund and community initiatives so that their application should be reflected in the best and most profitable way by the gradual elimination of disparities between regions and by the creation of jobs which are when all is said and done the two central purposes of the funds we are discussing |
in order to achieve a more rapid and efficient boost for attaining these objectives we think that those who generate employment the real entrepreneurs and those who really guarantee new sources of employment that is businesspeople must participate in this initiative |
small and mediumsized businesses above all need to take part in the distribution of these funds |
if they do not if businesspeople feel marginalised if entrepreneurs cannot take part not only in managing but also in receiving these funds we will have missed an opportunity to attain our objectives more rapidly |
also in order to attain our objectives to overcome the disparities between regions and to seek out sources of employment it is crucial to give our complete support to new technologies to transport and communications networks and to renewable energies |
all of this must be done i repeat with the participation of private business which by uniting its efforts with those of public administrations but complementing them never obstructing or excluding them will lead to the creation of wealth in society and of jobs |
mr president it is incumbent upon me to remind my colleague mr evans of why wales actually achieved objective 1 status |
it was because of the discredited policies of his own conservative party |
let me also remind him that when his party leader mr hague was secretary of state for wales he broke every rule in the book on additionality which led to a stern letter from commissioner wulfmathies regarding regulatory requirements |
i can tell you that the british government is aware of its regulatory requirements on objective 1 additionality |
i suggest mr evans goes back and reads the regulation |
my group has made extensive amendments to both reports up for debate today |
i want to focus our minds on the essential role of the guidelines |
the objective is to provide a framework and tool to support and enhance economic regeneration to get the most effective use of resources in the widest partnership and to put these regions back on the road to recovery and sustainable development so that eventually they come off the regional lifesupport machine |
it is important to identify the skills and potential of our regions in the hitech sector |
it is particularly important in the light of reports in the media that europe is rapidly losing ground to the us in the hitech growth industries of the future |
the operation of the previous round of programmes is also very instructive in telling us what guidelines should not be about |
they should not be about creating additional layers of bureaucracy and red tape |
they should not be about shifting priorities and policies halfway through project development resulting in inevitable delays and underspends particularly in the light of the new budgetary requirement |
the implementation and operation of the guidelines cannot be left to the personal interpretation of one or other desk officer either in the commission or in the civil service |
there must be an internal coherence in the commission directorate while respecting the specific local and regional aspects of commission programmes |
the conclusion is that we must make the case for guidelines to be broad indicative and flexible to assist our programme managers and fundusers and to get the maximum potential out of our new fields of regeneration |
if we can inject a spirit of entrepreneurial activity into our poor and structurally weak regions we will eventually get them back onto the road of attracting substantial investor confidence which will be the key to future success |
this is how we are going to judge the success of these guidelines whether eu regional policy with a good solid enabling guideline can open up new opportunities and allow our poor and structurally weak regions to play their full part in contributing to the growth and prosperity of the eu |
mr president commissioner i would like to thank mrs schroedter for an excellent report |
she has gone into the issue in some depth and in the committee debate she took account of many of the amendments that have been tabled regarding this report |
the rapporteur has also quite rightly stated that parliament was not heard in time regarding the guidelines |
we are badly behind now in this matter |
hopefully the stands parliament has taken will help however in the midterm appraisal of the programmes and in their practical implementation |
for the time the report grew too large when it was being debated |
it contained details and issues that had already been raised in previous reports |
at this stage it is more important to concentrate on assessing how we can use this process to steer union regional policy bearing in mind that the aim is to reduce regional inequality |
our group emphasises the importance of the principle of subsidiarity the responsibility of member states and the role of local players in drafting and implementing programmes |
it is especially important to get smes involved in the planning and implementation of programmes |
our group also considers it important to take greater account of remote and peripheral areas and wishes to increase interaction between towns and rural areas |
we oppose the excessive control the central administration of the union and its member states exercises and we are calling for a reduction in the bureaucracy that has taken root in the drafting and implementation of programmes |
projects implemented with support from the union have had their effect watered down all too often by slow decision making and complicated administrative processes |
funds have often been granted for projects which have had no lasting benefit for the area concerned |
projects have to be carried out more efficiently more flexibly and they have to be made more productive |
while the report was being prepared it was interesting to discuss the union' s regional policy in general |
for us new members it was the first time and this was a very interesting process |
this report is very good and our group supports it |
mr president commissioner as proof that this parliament has not yet overcome its role as a consultative and subordinate institution the excellent report by a fellow member of my group elisabeth schroedter has not been able to reach plenary sitting because the plans for regional development for the period 20002006 for objective 1 regions have been sitting in the commission' s offices for several months |
bearing this in mind this house should in any event demand that before the community support frameworks for the period in question are approved they be studied and submitted for debate in this parliament specifically in light of the guidelines that we have presented today this is because we think that they are particularly able to create employment in the poorest and leastdeveloped regions and we would thus contribute to reversing the harmful trends towards inequality that exist in european society and to the move towards a fairer europe |
mr president we should not forget that the main strategic objective of the structural and cohesion funds and of their coordination is to achieve economic and social cohesion |
we are obliged to participate in drafting directives and also in assessing their results |
we are obliged to do so because we are the representatives of the citizens in a europe of citizens and not just in a europe of states and of regions |
we feel that the funds are a necessary but insufficient condition for achieving economic and social cohesion |
we might be mistaken in using the gross domestic product per inhabitant as the sole indicator |
some speakers have already mentioned unemployment and the fall in population |
we will have to study several indicators which will enable us to see the current state of regional societies that are in a worse situation than others and how they are evolving |
it is clear from some of the reports that have been presented to parliament' s plenary sitting today that europe' s 25 most prosperous regions enjoy a level of unemployment which is five times lower than in the 25 least prosperous regions |
this fact means that the european parliament the commissioner and the commission must act decisively and strategically |
i agree that the european parliament did not have the opportunity or that it was not given the opportunity as we had reached the end of the parliamentary term to discuss the directives |
i do not think however that this report has come too late |
we need to consider it together so that the new objective 1 programmes and the plans for regional development which have been drafted before the directives come into force can be submitted for revision and proper assessment |
we all agree that we should ask that halfway through these programmes when the assessment of the directives is made parliament should be given an equally influential role on the grounds that we are the citizens' representatives |
our citizens cannot accept that the european union takes decisions in a way that is at least on the face of it bureaucratic |
they need to see the political dimension working to see that officials accept their responsibilities and that there is communication with the citizens |