No C 124/22 Official Journal of the European Communities 21. 5. 90 
Opinion on the declining industrial areas 
(90/C 124/09) 
On 13 December 1988, the Economic ans Social Committee acting under the fourth paragraph 
of Article 20 of its Rules of Procedure decided to draw up an Opinion on the reform of the 
Structural Funds particularly related to the declining industrial areas. 
The Section for Regional Development and Town and Country Planning, which was respon­
sible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 20 february 
1990 in the light of the report by Mr Christie, Rapporteur. 
At its 275th plenary session (meeting of 28 March 1990), the Economic and Social Committee 
adopted unanimously the following Opinion. 
1. Introductory remarks 2. General comments 
1.1. The Community's interest in the subject is by 
no means recent. Help has been granted to declining 
industrial areas even before the Treaty of Rome, under 
the auspices of the European Coal and Steel Com­
munity. Later on, help was also provided for the conver­
sion of these areas through the European Regional 
Development Fund (ERDF). 
1.2. Experience under the ERDF was gained at first 
through the quota-free programmes of the fund, fol­
lowed by the RENAVAL, RESIDER and most recently 
RECHAR programmes. 
1.3. Since 1988, the reform of the Structural Funds, 
arising from the Single European Act, defined declining 
industrial areas as objective 2 areas, thus giving them 
a priority but clearly differentiating them from the less 
developed regions (objective 1 areas). 
1.4. This Opinion of the Economic and Social Com­
mittee is intended to contribute to the Commission's 
efforts to identify the most effective policies and meas­
ures to achieve the conversion of the objective 2 areas. 
1.5. The list of regions and areas selected as being 
eligible under objective 2 was not published until March 
1989. It was, therefore, impossible for the Committee 
to comment in detail on the operation of the reformed 
Structural Funds from any practical experience. 
1.6. However, arising from a questionnaire which 
was completed on behalf of some Members of the study 
group set up to prepare this Opinion, arising from two 
study visits to Charleroi in Belgium and to Saarland in 
the Federal Republic of Germany, and arising from 
evidence taken by the study group, a number of specific 
recommendations can be made which seemed to the 
Committee to be important to the more effective oper­
ation of EC regional policy in the period up to 1993 
and beyond. 2.1. It is the view of the Committee that the priority 
of all programmes and financial action taken by EC 
Structural Funds and other financial bodies should be 
to create jobs. Particular emphasis should be placed on 
creating employment for unemployed young people and 
the long-term unemployed. Efforts should be made to 
identify where within the objective 2 regions there are 
significant concentrations of both categories of unem­
ployed. 
2.2. The Committee wishes to see an overall indi­
cation of the scale of investment necessary to achieve 
convergence for objective 2 regions set against the vol­
ume of available funds. The Committee is fully aware 
that funds to support the objective 2 regions are severely 
limited, but considers that all interested parties should 
be more aware of the problem. The Committee attaches 
considerable importance to the preparation of estimates 
which identify the scale of the problem to be resolved. 
2.3. The Committee is concerned to ensure that there 
is consistency between EC horizontal policies and 
regional development measures. In particular, 
vocational training policies and programmes should tie 
in in a more consistent and appropriate way with other 
EC grant-aided programmes. 
2.4. The third periodic report on the social and econ­
omic situation and development of the regions of the 
European Community recognized the problem of grow­
ing regional divergence as unemployment rose from 
the mid 1970s. The evidence showed that as national 
unemployment rose, so too did the spread and diver­
gence of regional unemployment. But in 1987 and 1988, 
when national rates of unemployment in Member States 
have been falling, the regional divergences in unemploy­
ment have continued to grow. The Committee is con­
cerned that internal disparities in unemployment rates 
between regions within Member States are failing to 
21. 5. 90 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 124/23 
narrow and considers that a more substantial commit­
ment of funds to the objective 2 regions may be 
necessary. 
2.5. The creation of the Single EC Market in 1992 
involves the removel of physical, technical, administrat­
ive and fiscal barriers to the free flow of goods, services 
and capital. The main impact of completing the Internal 
Market will be in those industries characterized by a 
high degree of intra-industry trade. A likely effect will 
be increasing concentration of production in a smaller 
number of larger sized plants and this will have import­
ant regional implications. The firms which are likely to 
benefit most from the Single Market already enjoy a 
relative technology advantage. This means that influen­
cing the sectoral and spatial distribution of technologi­
cal advantage via technology transfer is more than ever 
an important policy issue. The Committee notes that 
the Commission has commissioned a recently com­
pleted study of the effects of the Single Market on the 
traditional industrial areas in the Community (J). The 
Committee wishes to make the following comments: 
— the Committee recommends that further sectoral 
studies of the objective 2 regions be undertaken as 
a matter of urgency to establish in more detail which 
sectors and which regions are most likely to be at 
risk from the completion of the Internal Market, 
— the Committee is concerned that the boundaries of 
objective 2 regions should not be interpreted too 
strictly: there are certain objective 2 regions into 
which there is extensive commuting and this should 
be taken into account when determining levels of 
assistance, 
— the Committee draws the attention of the Com­
mission to the fact that in the traditional engineering 
sectors of many objective 2 regions there is consider­
able scope for the development of the production 
of environmentally-friendly technology, 
— the Committee recommends that, in drawing up the 
list of eligible objective 2 regions under STRIDE (2), 
the Commission recognizes the importance of the 
impact of technological change for industrial sectors 
vulnerable to the completion of the Single Internal 
Market. 
2.6. Completion of the Single Internal Market will 
facilitate the flow of capital to more developed regions 
where profits are more certain and more immediate. 
There is a risk to firms operating in the objective 2 
(*) Consequences socio-economiques de Vachievement du marche 
interieur pour les regions de tradition industrielle de la Com-
munaute europeenne—Universite Catholique de Louvain— 
Association RIDER-IRES—Rapport de syntbese decembre 
1989. 
(2) Forthcoming Community initiative programme on research 
and development (R&D) for regional development. regions from the over-centralization of capital markets 
geared primarily to providing capital for large multi­
national corporations. There is increasing evidence to 
suggest that, on a Community-wide scale, the central­
ization of capital markets is operating to discourage the 
supply of venture capital to smaller regional companies. 
The Committee is pleased to learn that initiatives are 
now under way to etablish a Community network of 
regional financial centres whose primary function will 
be to meet the capital requirements of growing regional­
ly based companies. This goes a part way to relieving 
the Committee's concern over the possibility of an 
insufficient inflow of productive capital to the objective 
2 regions. 
2.7. Given the concerns expressed (in paragraph 1.4 
and paragraph 6 of the report), the Committee considers 
that the availability of balance of payments accounts 
for large adjoining objective 2 regions will be an import­
ant step, not only towards monitoring the application 
of the Structural Funds, but also of ensuring that the 
volume and composition of productive investment in 
these regions is appropriate to their circumstances. 
2.8. The Committee is strongly of the opinion that 
the reconversion of the declining areas should be based 
on the development of endogenous resources via inte­
grated development programmes. Such an integrated 
approach should include inter alia: 
— forward-looking job management and skill develop­
ment in each employment zone, 
investment in regional infrastructure and financial 
support for firms, while supporting local initiatives 
and cooperative projects, 
— coordination between regional programmes in order 
to avoid harmful competition between less-favoured 
regions to be achieved by means of planning objec­
tives for economic and social cohesion, 
— close coordination of EC regional programmes both 
with other EC programmes, especially in the field 
of technology, and with Member States' regional 
programmes, 
— recognition that the increasing importance of Com­
munity initiative programmes (formely quota-
free programmes) e.g. RESIDER, RENEVAL, 
RECHAR, should provide a better mechanism for 
the integration of various regional aid instruments. 
No C 124/24 Official Journal of the European Communities 21. 5. 90 
The Committee is encouraged by the positive results 
that have been achieved in the early stages of the 
'Europartnership' programme aimed at stimulating 
cooperation among small and medium-sized enterprises 
(SMEs) in less developed regions and enterprises in 
other regions of the Community. The Committee would 
wish to see the 'Europartnership' operations in Ireland 
in 1988 and Andalucia in 1989 extended more widely 
with special attention to the involvement of the objec­
tive 2 regions^ 
2.9. In 1987 and 1988, around 90% of total ERDF 
expenditure on projects went to investment in infra­
structure, particularly in transport, water and sewage 
treatment and industrial estates. This contrasts with 
Article 35 of the ERDF Regulation which requires 
Member States to ensure that 30 % if possible of ERDF 
funds is allocated to productive investment. The Com­
mittee wishes to make the following observations on 
this issue: 
— some Member States spend too much money on 
infrastructure and too little on productive invest­
ment, 
— the Committee, therefore, welcomes the intention of 
the new Regulations to make access to Community 
funds more direct and effective; this is something 
which the Committee recommends should be closely 
monitored as experience develops to ensure that 
local businesses as well as regional governments 
and development agencies are not denied legitimate 
access to EC support, 
— the Committee is concerned that, because of short­
comings in management capability, certain infra­
structure projects, for example in the areas of water 
and sewage treatment in Italy, have been aban­
doned. 
In the light of these concerns, the Committee rec­
ommends that Member States should seek the best 
possible synergy between private and public investment. 
2.10. The role that the development of producer 
services can play in the process of regional adaptation 
is now only starting to be appreciated. Producer services 
are now recognized as occupying a key position in the 
contribution they can make to promoting economic 
change and can exert a major influence on the way in 
which an economy can adjust to changing economic 
circumstances. Producer services can help to adapt 
skills, attitudes, products and processes to change and 
assist in reducing the structural, organizational, mana­
gerial and information barriers to economic adjust­
ment. The Committee is aware that the Single Internal 
Market has important implications for the development 
of producer services in the objective 2 regions and 
welcomes the Commission's initiative in inviting bids 
for further research in this area. 2.11. The Committee deplores that Member States 
still do not attach sufficient weight to the principle of 
'additionality' and trusts that the Commission will find 
it possible to perform its function of ensuring that the 
provision of Structural Funds is genuinely additional to 
the funds provided by Member States. The Committee 
expresses the hope that those Member States eligible 
for support under more than one objective will ensure 
that the Structural Funds are properly aggregated and 
allocated between major objectives. 
2.12. The Committee stresses the importance it 
attaches to the funding of research into the effectiveness 
of regional measures assisted by Structural Funds. The 
Committee notes the wish of the Commission Director­
ate-General for regional policy to support a multiannual 
programme of studies and technical assistance in the 
regional field for the period 1990 to 1993 (1). In particu­
lar, the Committee would wish to see priority given to 
studies in the following areas: 
— methods of monitoring and assessing regional meas­
ures assisted by the Structural Funds (2), 
— monitoring ex ante and ex post of the effectiveness 
of local development policies (point 2.4.4), 
— regional consequences of the completion of the Sin­
gle Internal Market (point 2.1.7), 
— regional differences in public and private investment 
and their importance for regional output and 
employment growth (point 2.1.2), 
— initiatives to be financed by the Structural Funds in 
the area of transfrontier measures (point 2.3.2), 
— establishment of a databank on the pollution prob­
lems encountered in the rehabilitation of derelict 
industrial sites (point 2.3.3.4), 
— systematic evaluation of the experience of regional 
development agencies engaged in both the strategy 
and tactics of regional development with a view to 
capitalizing on the very substantial body of expertise 
which exists in these agencies (point 2.2.6), 
— the setting up of study teams and networks to 
monitor and assess regional measures assisted by 
the Structural Funds (point 2.4.2), 
— the contribution of producer services to the develop­
ment of objective 2 regions [point 2.3.2(d)]. 
2.13. Partnership and cooperation between different 
administrations and by Community groups should be 
(') OJ No C 189, 26. 7. 1989, p. 10. 
(2) OJ No C 189, 26. 7. 1989. 
21. 5. 90 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 124/25 
supplemented by adequate consultation of employers' 
and employees' representatives from the planning stage 
up to the final programe assessment. Employers' and 
employees' representatives should be consulted in 
advance and their views should be submitted together 
with any applications for finance to support actions or 
programmes. Priority should be given to those pro­
grammes welcomed by both employers and employees 
concerned. 
2.14. Arising from experience of Charleroi, the Com­
mittee has made a number of observations: 
— it takes a period of 3 to 4 years for a conversion-
promotion project to yield concrete results, 
— it is important for a development agency to 
approach businesses before recession sets in, 
— it is more important to meet the specific needs of 
individual undertakings than to sell standard ser­
vices or sites, 
— rapid processing of aid applications is as important 
as the volume of available resources, 
— the type of services which a development agency 
must offer cannot be established solely on the basis 
of its own funding, 
— infrastructure expenditure which does not have an 
immediate impact is a waste of resources and is 
motivated by political rather by socio-economic fac­
tors, 
— cooperation between neighbouring areas is import­
ant at local, regional and croos-border level, 
— in order to combat alienation and despair, overcome 
fatalism and create prospects for the future, it is 
essential that all socio-economic agents are involved 
in the process of economic regeneration; the active 
involvement of all groups in a community can achie­
ve unexpected levels of consensus and produce 
unexpected results. 
This final observation is an issue which the Committee 
considers to be extremely important. Without the active 
involvement of all groups (employers, trade unions, 
local authorities, community groups, financial agents, 
etc.), the Committee is doubtful whether the Com­
munity will be able to achieve its objective of cohesion. 
The Committee is impressed by the way in which all 
members of society in Charleroi have been involved in 
the process of drawing up the region's programme of 
economic regeneration. In this regard, the Committee 
commends Charleroi as an example for other objective 
2 regions to emulate. 2.15. The Committee is impressed by the extent of 
cross-border cooperation in Saar-Lor-Lux and sees this 
cooperation as providing the key to the successfull 
regeneration of the region. Arising from the experience 
of Saarland, the Committee has made a number of 
observations: 
— the high level of cross-border cooperation between 
Saarland, Lorraine and Luxembourg, including the 
establishment of an inter-regional Parliamentary 
Council and a trades union Council, is an important 
factor in facilitating economic regeneration, 
— the setting up of IRI, a regional community insti­
tution involving regional parliaments, industry and 
universities, to promote and implement Saar-Lor-
Lux initiatives confirms the commitment to cross-
border cooperation, 
— the Committee particularly welcomes the setting up 
of a working party to consider practical problems 
of cross-frontier vocational training, 
— the drawning up in 1988 of a 5-year plan for Saar-
Lor-Lux to consider actively a number of key pro­
jects including the creation of a single university for 
Saar-Lor-Lux operating on a number of campuses 
and a single metropolitan area project integrating 
the passenger transport facilities of Metz, Saarland 
and Luxembourg, confirms the intention to achieve 
substantial and effective integration of all major 
aspects of economic and social development in the 
region; 
the Committee fully endorses the views of the rep­
resentatives of the Saarbrucken Centre of Inno­
vation and Technology (SITZ), the reformed EC 
regional policy should: 
— be flexible in its operation to take account of 
the major differences between regions, 
— provide greater incentives to attract new invest­
ment to declining industrial areas and promote 
SME, 
— ensure that development agencies do not concen­
trate in one region and compete with one 
another, 
— secure easy, direct access between the region and 
the Community without intermediate bodies, 
— simplify information at each level and ensure 
easy access to it, 
— contribute to the establishment of a global 
approach to development in each region. 
No C 124/26 Official Journal of the European Communities 21. 5. 90 
2.16. The Committee notes the massive scale of 
rehabilitation at the Volklingen steel works in the Saar­
land involving the processing of 4,5 billion cubic metres 
of industrial waste containing more than 200 chemicals, 
some of which have penetrated to a depth of more than 
15 metres. The Committee recommends that an EC 
databank be set up to store information gleaned from 
redevelopment projects and the methods used. 
The Committee is impressed by the ambitious plant 
to preserve parts of the Volklingen steelworks as an 
important example of industrial archaeology. Parts are 
being preserved as a testimony to past steelmaking 
technology and other parts are being adapted for cul­
tural purposes. The Committee considers that it is desirable to preserve the collective memory because an 
economic activity is, in itself, also a social and societal 
phenomenon, the witness of an area in the evolution 
and development of activities. The Committee con­
siders that the possibility of establishing a foundation 
for this purpose should be investigated. 
2.17. From the observations in 2.14 and 2.15 above 
made to the Committee by the representatives of the 
development agencies in Charleroi and Saarland, it is 
obvious that there is a considerable degree of agreement 
between them on the strategy of regional development 
and the relationship between local agencies and the 
Community under the new funding arrangements. 
Done at Brussels, 28 March 1990. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Alberto MASPRONE 
Opinion on the proposal for a Council Decision adopting a specific research and technological 
development programme in the field of transport (EURET) (*) 
(90/C 124/10) 
On 12 December 1989, the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, 
under Article 100A of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, on the 
abovementioned proposal. 
The Section for Transport and Communications, which was responsible for preparing the 
Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 14 March 1990. The Rapporteur 
was Mr Moreland. 
At its 275th plenary session (meeting of 28 March 1990) the Economic and Social Committee 
adopted the following Opinion by a large majority (one abstention). 
1. Introduction: outline of Commission proposal 
1.1. This is a proposal for a Council Decision adopt­
ing a specific research and technological development 
programme in the field of transport (EURET). 
1.2. The funding for this programme (25 million 
ECU) will be taken from point 2.3 of the current frame-
(M OJ No C 318, 20. 12. 1989, p. 5. work programme for Community activities in the field 
of research and technological development (1987-1991). 
However the funds will be expended over a period from 
1990 to 1993. Generally the Community participation 
will be 50 % of total expenditive on a project although 
exceptionally universities and research institutes may 
be eligible for 100%. 
1.3. The Commission states that the criteria for the 
choice of research topics are: