WRITTEN QUESTION E-1710/01

by Jean-Claude Fruteau (PSE) to the Commission

(14 June 2001)

Subject: Cohesion policy and outermost regions

The economic and social cohesion policy debate is now well under way. Enlargement, a prospect looming very close on the horizon, will radically alter cohesion policy, inevitably entailing consequences for the Union's most vulnerable regions, not least the outermost regions.

In practical terms, a Europe of 27 will be 30 % larger than at present but only 5 % richer, producing a new equation that will result in far-reaching changes in the next programming period. There is consequently reason to fear that, owing to the poverty of some areas, the difficulties of others will be artificially lost to sight. The new methods of calculation will therefore have to be geared to the socio-economic realities in the Union.

In its document on European unity, solidarity among peoples, and territorial diversity the Commission stated that it had begun to consider how the needs of the outermost regions might be covered in future cohesion policy.

1. Has the Commission moved further forward in its thinking on this point?

2. Does not Article 299(2) of the EC Treaty, as amended by the Treaty of Amsterdam, imply that all the outermost regions should remain within the scope of Objective 1 for the future programming period?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(6 September 2001)

As the Honourable Member notes, when the Second Report on Economic and Social Cohesion was published the Commission launched a wide-ranging consultation process on the future of the regional and structural policy of the Union embracing the authorities of the Member States, local authorities and the representatives of civil society to enable it to draw up guidelines for its future proposals between now and 2004. The first cohesion forum was organised in Brussels on 21 and 22 May.

With regard to preserving the eligibility of all the outermost regions for Objective 1 during the next programming period, the conclusions of the second report recognise that on the latest data available (1998), the application of a threshold of 75 % GDP per head in a Union of 27 Member States would reduce the population in the present EU 15 eligible for Objective 1 assistance by more than half. The second report then presents four options: application of the present threshold of 75 %; application of the current threshold of 75 % with temporary support for the outgoing regions at levels which would increase the closer their GDP was to the 75 % threshold; the setting of a threshold higher than 75 % so as to reduce or even eliminate the automatic effect of excluding EU 15 regions; the fixing of two thresholds of eligibility, one for the EU 15 regions and one for the candidate countries.

This is the general background to consultations on the outermost regions in the light of their specific situation under Article 299(2) of the EC Treaty: as that Article envisages, this will cover in particular access by these regions to the Structural Funds. With this in mind, Mr Barnier engaged in initial discussions with the Presidents of the seven outermost regions last May on Réunion. A further meeting should be held in the autumn.

It would be premature at this stage to draw up the conclusions of a debate which is still continuing. The Commission can, however, assure the Honourable Member that it intends to take full account of Article 299(2).