WRITTEN QUESTION E-0857/02

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(3 April 2002)

Subject: Priority use of the Structural Funds in training and research and development: the case of Galicia

In the light of Ireland's experience, the idea is gaining ground in the European Union that the Structural Funds should primarily be used for training for workers and for research and development, rather than for infrastructure. This idea responds to an urgent need, even though it is also true that in many outlying areas it was necessary to construct communications links with the centre of the Union and modernise other infrastructure as a pre-condition for development. However, it is also inseparable from a specific and effective regional development policy, which is incompatible with indiscriminate promotion of labour mobility between various regions, bringing with it the certain risk of creating a paradoxical situation where the less developed regions, such as Galicia, help to educate generations of technicians who are then unable to find jobs and are obliged to emigrate to the centre of Europe or to more developed parts of Spain.

What strategic measures will the Council take to make training and R & D compatible with regional development and ensure that there are businesses in the countries concerned which are capable of absorbing the new technical skills created, in the absence of which workers are forced into this new type of emigration, euphemistically known as labour mobility?

Reply

(27 June 2002)

1. The Council would remind the Honourable Member that during the programming period 2000-2006, Objective 1 programmes are focussed on three categories of projects likely to generate a process of sustainable, endogenous growth,

- infrastructures (28 % of funds), approximately half of which are for transport infrastructure;

- human resources (20 % of funds) with priority given to employment policies and education and training systems;

- intervention in support of the manufacturing sector (42 % of funds).

2. More specifically with regard to the Objective 1 programme for Galicia, the contribution from the Structural Funds for the period in question amounts to EUR 3 430 million. The Programme covers 11 priority areas and technical assistance measures.

With particular reference to priority 2 of the Galician programme, which is entirely dedicated to a knowledge-based society (innovation, R & D, information society), aid will be granted for the development of scientific research activities and the promotion of transfers of technology to the manufacturing sector as well as aid for investment in human capital. Public research centres and other centres of technology will be set up or modernised; research, innovation and technological development projects will receive subsidies and scientific and technological equipment will be financed. Aid will also be made available to support the spread of the information society, notably to facilitate cross-border cooperation with the North of Portugal. The total cost of priority 2 of the Galician programme is EUR 171 573. More detailed information on this Programme is available on the Commission's europa Internet site.

3. With reference to the Community's research policy, the sixth framework programme for research (2002-2006) provides for measures to boost the research activities in Objective 1 regions. As the Honourable Member knows, the Council is currently negotiating with the European Parliament the content of the sixth framework programme, due to be adopted under the co-decision procedure this summer.