WRITTEN QUESTION E-4199/97 by José García-Margallo y Marfil (PPE) to the Commission (21 January 1998)

Subject: Agenda 2000 and Objective 1: unemployment/active population 1993-1997

At the end of November the Director-General of Regional Policy and Cohesion, Eneko Landäburu, suggested, in the presence of press representatives, that 11 European regions, including Valencia (Spain), were to lose their Objective 1 status under the terms of the Commission proposals to reduce the Structural Funds before the accession of new Member States.

Mr Landäburu's calculations were based on the provisional data currently available to the Commission. However, in the specific case of Valencia, official Eurostat statistics show that, in 1993, the Valencia Autonomous Community's GDP was 74.9% of the European average and that, in 1994, the figure was even lower (73.6%). The threshold for Objective 1 eligibility is 75%, hence there are no grounds for supposing that Valencia is going to fail the eligibility test in the near future.

Should the average income of the various regions during the 1993-1997 period be taken as the criterion for calculating GDP, it is important that the macro-economic data for each region should be known for all of the years concerned.

What, in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997, was the size of the unemployed population as a percentage of the active population in the following regions:

Anatolia, Macedonia, Thessaly, Crete, Pelopennese, Central Greece, Ipiros, Attica, Ionian Islands, Aegean, Sterea (Greece)

Hainaut (Belgium)

Thuringia, Brandenburg, East Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Munster (Germany)

Galicia, Extremadura, Castilla la Mancha, Castilla y Leon, Ceuta and Melilla, Valencia Autonomous Community, Asturias, Andalusia, Canary Islands, Murcia (Spain)

Valenciennes, Avesnes, Douai, Overseas Departments (France)

Ulster, Connaught, Leinster (Ireland)

Molise, Apulia, Sicily, Basilicata, Sardinia, Calabria, Campania (Italy)

Flevoland (Netherlands)

Burgerland (Austria)

Northern Region, Alentejo, Algarve, Lisbon, Tagus Valley, Central Region (Portugal)

Western Isles, Highlands, Merseyside, Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-4196/97, E-4197/97, E-4198/97, E-4199/97, E-4200/97, E-4201/97 and E-4204/97 given by Mr de Silguy on behalf of the Commission (13 March 1998)

Article 8 of the current legislation governing the structural funds, Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/93 of 20 July 1993 amending Regulation (EEC) No 2052/88 on the tasks of the Structural Funds and their effectiveness and on coordination of their activities between themselves and with the operations of the European Investment Bank and the other existing financial instruments ((OJ L 193, 31.7.1993. )), lays down that 'the regions covered by Objective 1 shall be regions at NUTS level II whose per capita GDP, on the basis of the figures for the last three years, is less than 75% of the Community average'.

The regional GDPs are estimated using a standard methodology for all regions of the Community. The method used is based on two variables: the national GDP for a given period and the regional structure of the corresponding gross value added. The latest data currently available relate to 1994. The data for 1995 are being drawn up, and those for 1996 will be available by the end of this year.

The statistical information requested by the honourable Member, taken from Eurostat's REGIO database, is being sent to him and the Secretariat-General of Parliament. It should be noted that this information is not available for Valenciennes, Avesnes and Douai (which are areas lower than NUTS level II, eligible by way of exception under Objective 1).