WRITTEN QUESTION E-2917/98

by Jean Baggioni (UPE) to the Council

(2 October 1998)

Subject: Island regions and the reform of the Union's regional policy

Can the Council say whether it hopes that:

- the Union's regional policy, the reform of which is currently under discussion, will take express account of the amendments made to the Treaty on European Union by the Amsterdam Conference with regard to island regions (Article 130a and Declaration No 30 annexed thereto)?

- the Commission will regard these new provisions as the legal basis for a policy in which Community legislation takes account of the permanent handicaps linked to their island status and which includes specific measures in favour of island regions in order to integrate them into the internal market on fair conditions, as requested by the European Parliament in its resolution (A4-0118/98) of 28 May 1998?

Reply

(18/19 January 1999)

1. The Council is fully aware of the paramount importance of economic and social cohesion as one of the key elements of its policies to promote overall harmonious development of the Community and to reduce the disparities in regional development and the backwardness of its least favoured areas, including islands. As the Honourable Member rightly points out, this principle was embodied in Article 130a of the EC Treaty as amended by the Amsterdam Treaty which is in the process of ratification and in the attached declaration on island regions.

2. The Council would like to point out, however, that considering the overall scope of these provisions and the specific acknowledgement that Community legislation must take account of structural handicaps linked to island status, where justified, in order to integrate such regions into the internal market on fair conditions, as stated in the declaration, a wide range of policy instruments can be called upon to attain these objectives. One of these instruments is the reform of the Structural Funds currently under discussion in the Council.

3. One of the key elements of the reform is the reduction of priority objectives to three. The Commission is proposing to include under objective 1 NUTS level II (Eurostat nomenclature) regions whose development is lagging behind and whose per capita GDP is less than 75 % of the Community average measured in purchase power parities. The Commission also proposes to include the most remote regions (the French overseas departments, the Azores, the Canary Islands and Madeira) and certain areas in Finland and Sweden currently eligible under objective 6.

4. The Commission proposal does not include islands as such; however, without making innovations in this context in relation to the existing rules governing the Structural Funds, it includes island regions which fall in the category of outermost regions or NUTS level II regions which meet the criterion of less than 75 % of GDP. Islands not eligible under objective 6 may moreover benefit from structural appropriations within the framework of objectives 2 (areas undergoing economic and social conversion) and 3 (development of human resources).

5. The Council has not yet reached a common position on the proposal.

6. As for the second part of the question the Council is of the opinion that the Commission would be in a better position to reply.