# CE2004065EN.01024401.xml

| 13.3.2004 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | CE 65/244 |
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13.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 65/244

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(2004/C 65 E/260)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2912/03

by Joan Vallvé (ELDR) to the Commission

(2 October 2003)

Subject:   The European Union's cohesion policies

Subject:

Cohesion policy has for years been a fundamental part of the Union's political activities. The policy's instruments of solidarity are the four Structural Funds (the ERDF, ESF, FIFG and EAGGF), the Cohesion Fund and the Community initiatives (Interreg III, Urban II, Leader+ and Equal).

Of the Community initiatives, Interreg III is the one with a truly European dimension in the sense that it lessens the effects on our continent of centuries of the existence of national borders. It comes under the European Regional Development Fund and promotes interregional cooperation in the European Union. The aim of the new phase of Interreg is to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the EU by increasing crossborder, transnational and interregional cooperation and fostering balanced regional development. The EU launched these four programmes, the Community initiatives (to which 5,35 % of monies under the Structural Funds are allocated), in order to find common solutions to problems that exist throughout the EU.

The European scale of this initiative cannot, however, be compared with the boost to cohesion given by the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund. The Cohesion Fund, a special aid fund, was set up in 1993 to assist the four least prosperous Member States: Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain. It is used throughout these countries to finance large-scale environmental and transport projects. Similarly, the Structural Funds focus on clear priority objectives: 70 % of funding is allocated to help the least developed regions catch up, regions where 22 % of the Union's population live (Objective 1); 11,5 % supports economic and social conversion in areas facing structural difficulties, inhabited by 18 % of the EU population (Objective 2), and 12,3 % of funding is used to modernise systems of training and promote unemployment (Objective 3).

Has the Commission considered separating into different programmes the policies corresponding to the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund and those relating to the Community initiatives?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(31 October 2003)

(31 October 2003)

Interventions under the Community Initiatives are currently programmed entirely separately from the programmes supported under Objectives 1 and 2 of the Structural Funds and from the projects supported by the Cohesion Fund.

These arrangements will apply until the expiry of the financial perspective for the period 2000-2006. For the next period, it is the role of the Commission to propose to the Parliament and to the Council a new financial perspective and a new generation of policies for support from the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund. These proposals are planned for adoption by the Commission before the end of this year. It is therefore too early at this stage to speculate on the arrangements for the implementation of new policies.

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