WRITTEN QUESTION P-2816/99

by Roy Perry (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(7 January 2000)

Subject: Interreg and maritime border regions

By including certain maritime border regions in the Annex to the Interreg Guidelines, the Commission accepted that there is value in assisting maritime border regions to work closely under strand A. The Commission does not, however, recognise that other maritime border regions can demonstrate solid grounds for inclusion in Interreg IIIA as the list of eligible regions is presently restricted to regions which benefited from Interreg A funds during the last programming period.

New maritime borders can show that they are able to develop the close partnerships envisaged under Interreg IIIA as well as produce specific concrete outputs.

They have:

- long-standing and developed links across the maritime border, including ferry and commercial links;

- support and commitment to cross-border cooperation from multisectoral local partnerships.

Would the Commission consider introducing the necessary flexibility into the Interreg Guidelines so that these additional maritime border regions can benefit from this funding programme?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(10 February 2000)

Under the draft communication from the Commission to the Member States laying down guidelines for a Community Initiative (Interreg) for the 2000-06 programming period, approved by the Commission on 13 October 1999(1), cooperation between maritime regions will be developed under the three strands provided for in the Initiative: cross-border cooperation (strand A), transnational cooperation (strand B) and interregional cooperation (strand C).

The primary aim of strand A is to promote cross-border cooperation between neighbouring local and regional development authorities, i.e. between areas with land borders. As in the past, some maritime regions will be eligible also, as an exception, for this form of cooperation. The indicative list of priorities and measures eligible under strand A indicates clearly that the majority could be applied in border regions separated by a sea or a maritime route only with considerable difficulty.

By contrast, all maritime regions will be eligible under the other two strands. In the case of transnational cooperation, each maritime region will be able to take part in one or two programmes covering a cooperation region such as the North Sea or the Atlantic Area. The list of priorities and measures planned for this strand is exhaustive but includes major possibilities for developing and strengthening cooperation between maritime regions, such as promoting intermodality of more environmentally compatible means of transport, in particular maritime transport, inland waterway transport and rail transport.

In order to meet the requests from the regions concerned, the Commission is planning to introduce greater flexibility in the measures eligible for cooperation between maritime regions into the final guidelines. The Interreg programme will thus cover the various types of cooperation, and in particular offer those regions the possibility of a specific priority within the future Interreg III B programmes.

(1) COM(1999) 479 final.