WRITTEN QUESTION E-3476/97 by José García-Margallo y Marfil (PPE) to the Commission (31 October 1997)

Subject: Agenda 2000: Cohesion Fund and new Member States

The Agenda 2000 presented by the Commission on 15 July 1997 (COM(97) 2000 final) proposes to maintain the Cohesion Fund in its present form, reaffirming thus that this Fund will continue to be the principal instrument to help the less wealthy countries to pursue their efforts at economic recovery and convergence. At the same time, however, it is stressed that the Cohesion Fund will constitute an instrument of great interest to future Member States, the investment needs of which are considerable particularly in this regard, whilst provision is made for an interim review of eligibility (at the mid-way point, i.e. in 2003) according to the criterion of a per capita GNP below 90% of the Community average.

Although the meaning of the above seems to be that Member States which have major deficiencies as regards infrastructure, i.e. the peripheral regions, shall continue to receive the same level of aid which is of vital importance to enable them to approach the level of development of more central Member States, it could be interpreted in other ways.

Does the proposed 'interim review' mean that, as of 2003, Member States currently benefitting from these funds will have to share them with any new Member States which will have such a low starting point as regards development that most of the aid would be concentrated on them?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-3465/97, E-3466/97, E-3467/97, E-3468/97, E-3469/97, E-3470/97, E-3471/97, E-3472/97 and E-3476/97 given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (22 January 1998)

A mid-term review is foreseen in Article 2(3) of the currently applicable Regulation No 1164/94 governing the Cohesion fund ((OJ L 130, 25.5.1994. )). In its communication Agenda 2000 ((COM(97) 2000 final. )) the Commission also proposes a mid-term evaluation for the new funding period in order to verify whether the recipient Member States still fulfil the eligibility criteria, i.e. whether their per capita gross national product (GNP) remains below 90% of the Community average.

Should enlargement have taken place by that time, the necessary calculations would be made on the basis of data for the enlarged Community. Given present Commission forecasts for economic growth and assuming that all six countries in respect of which the Commission has proposed to open accession negotiations were to become members by 2003, Spain should even on that basis still be eligible for Cohesion fund support. The Honourable Member's questions refer to situations in which only individual candidates or small groups of them accede by 2003. This is not the basis of the Commission's financial calculations in Agenda 2000. Such hypothetical situations would, however, be no less favourable to Spain.

The 45 000 MECU proposed by the Commission for structural measures in favour of the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) include an allocation for Cohesion fund type measures. Therefore the budget of 20 000 MECU for the Cohesion fund proposed in Agenda 2000 would be divided only between the present Member States fulfilling the eligibility criteria. Spain's future allocation will thus depend on its position compared to the other recipients among the present Member States.