WRITTEN QUESTION E-2413/97 by Klaus Lukas (NI) to the Commission (10 July 1997)

Subject: Reform of structural and regional assistance

Accord to reports in the media, the Commission is working on proposals for the comprehensive reform of structural and regional assistance. It is also understood that Objective 5b regions are to be abandoned in this context.

On what grounds is structural and regional assistance to be reformed?

What objectives is the Commission pursuing in this connection?

When and how is the reform of structural and regional assistance to be accomplished?

Is it true that Objective 5b regions are to be abandoned?

What implications would the abandonment of Objective 5b regions have for Austria?

Has any thought been given to developing other measures to assist these 'abandoned' Objective 5b regions?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (15 October 1997)

European-wide solidarity and in this context the major objective of reducing disparities in development, as set out explicitly in Article 130a of the EC Treaty, is an essential political basis of European unity. It is an essential contribution towards stability in the Community and promoting a high level of employment. Constant efforts must be made to tackle the regions' uneven capabilities for generating sustainable development and their difficulties in adapting to new conditions on the labour market, which call for greater capacity to foresee and prepare for the skills both men and women will need in future. Therefore structural assistance must foster improvements in competitiveness and lasting growth to create jobs throughout the Community. The results from the Cork conference, the cohesion forum in Brussels and of numerous contacts with Member States have shown that a better geographical, financial and thematic concentration of structural funds is necessary in order to assist in an efficient cohesion policy. Further to this the forthcoming enlargement to the East, the new challenges by the next World trade organisation (WTO) negotiation round as well as increased expectations by the public make it necessary to increase efficiency and to simplify structural assistance.

The objective of a reform of structural funding is to concentrate assistance more on areas and target groups confronted with difficulties and to increase efficiency. Simplification of structural funding should help to make it easier for all participants to operate.

By publishing 'Agenda 2000' ((Doc. COM(97) 2000 final. )) the Commission already has shown the key issues concerning the reform of structural funding and has proposed the financial framework. Those proposals now will have to be detailed in the structural regulations the Commission should propose early next year. In principle these regulations should be decided by the Council before the end of 1998 so that the implementation of new programmes should begin from 1 January 2000.

Agenda 2000 indeed proposes that regions with important economic and social restructuring should be integrated in a new objective 2. This would include areas affected by change in the industrial, service and fisheries sectors, rural areas in serious decline because of a lack of economic diversification and urban districts in difficulty because of a loss of economic activities. In this context, Community intervention should combine all forms of structural support. In the interest of simplification, this should result in a single programme by assisted region. Furthermore, this assistance should be geographically concentrated on the worst affected areas. The coverage should be as consistent as possible with the areas assisted by the Member States under Article 92 (3) c of the EC Treaty (so-called national assisted areas). In all rural areas outside objective 1, rural development measures to accompany and complement market policies will be co-financed by the European agriculture guidance and guarantee fund (EAGGF) guarantee section. They will embrace all types of measures supporting structural adjustment and rural development as presently co-financed by the EAGGF guidance section. Included in the same legal framework as the present accompanying measures, they will be applied horizontally and implemented in a decentralized way at the appropriate level, at the initiative of Member States. The same approach will apply to fishery coastal areas as far as the interventions of the financial instrument for fisheries guidance (FIFG) are concerned.

Eventual consequences for areas in Austria cannot be given for the time being as details of the new structural funding still have to be worked out and the final decision will be up to the Council.

Areas currently eligible for objectives 2 and 5b, which will no longer be eligible under the future criteria should benefit from transitional measures from the structural funds, during a limited period after 1999.