WRITTEN QUESTION E-0491/97 by Ludivina García Arias (PSE) to the Commission (19 February 1997)

Subject: Territorial employment pacts

How does the Commission intend to ensure that the proposed territorial employment pacts will be the result of a genuine joint effort involving both the national and regional authorities and local authorities, employers' organizations and trade unions?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-0488/97, E-0489/97, E-0490/97, E-0491/97 and E-0492/97 given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (7 April 1997)

With regard to the list and precise contents of the territorial pacts proposed in the context of the Dublin European Council, that Council called for the rapid implementation of about 60 proposals for pacts selected by the authorities of 14 Member States. This does not mean that these proposals have already been 'approved'; in the vast majority of cases, they are no more than an indication of an area or territory wishing to participate in the measure.

This is the case with Spain, which on 11 December 1996 announced to the Commission the candidacy of six areas (Cadiz, the coal-mining areas of Palencia, León and Asturias, Valles occidental, Ceuta and Melilla).

The Commission now has to obtain all the information needed to appraise these 60 proposals, particularly to identify the promoters of the pact, gather information about partnership and how it is to be expanded in relation to current practices, and establish the broad lines of the action plan for the pact as regards job creation and the innovative nature of the proposed measures.

These will be the main themes of a bilateral negotiation between the coordinator of each pact and the Commission. This negotiation will, if necessary, result in the grant of Community technical assistance up to a maximum of ECU 200 000 per pact. It will also make it possible to determine specifically how the action plan for each pact will fit in with the current programming of structural assistance in the area. This will, in any event, mean bringing the pacts to the attention of the Monitoring Committees concerned in order to gain their assent. The Commission's objective is to get through most of these negotiations in time for the Amsterdam European Council, so as to be able to submit a progress report.

The Commission cannot, in view of the principle of subsidiarity, guarantee that partnership is in fact extended in the proposals selected by the national authorities, since this is the responsibility of the players concerned. The Commission will, however, check proper compliance with this approach when it makes its appraisal of the proposals, since it believes it to be of prime importance.

The margins for financial manoeuvre within the Structural Funds to which the Honourable Member refers are not exclusively intended for the financing of the territorial employment pacts. The communication 'Action for employment in Europe, a confidence pact' indeed proposes that these possibilities for flexible programming be used in general to improve the impact on employment of programmed measures within the framework of the existing procedures. In this context, the territorial employment pacts constitute an individual effort to do more and better for employment.

With regard to the amount of each of these margins for flexibility in Spain, the product of the deflator applied to the programmes is estimated at ECU 665 million for Objective 1 (1994-97), ECU 16.1 million for Objective 2 (1994-96) and ECU 17.02 million for Objective 5(b) (1994-96). The funds programmed for the new Objective 2 (1997-99) amount to an estimated ECU 1 318 million, but the Community Support Framework for this Objective is still being studied. Lastly, the mid-term review of the programmes for Objectives 1, 3, 4 and 5(b) cannot to begin until the second half of 1997, because of the necessary preliminary evaluation work.