WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3476/97 by José GARCÍA-MARGALLO Y MARFIL to the Commission. Agenda 2000: Cohesion Fund and new Member States
Date: 1997-10-31
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Cohesion Fund, EU Member State, European Commission, accession to the European Union, coordination of aid, economic and social cohesion, eligibility criteria, enlargement of the Union, gross national product

C 187/14

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

16. 6. 98

(98/C 187/21)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3472/97

by Jose· Garc(cid:14)·a-Margallo y Marfil (PPE) to the Commission

(31 October 1997)

Subject: Agenda 2000: Spain, Hungary and the Cohesion Fund

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.

What proportion of the Structural Fund would be allocated to Spain in 2003 in the event that Hungary were to be
a Member State of the European Union, in view of the present macro-economic prospects of that country, of
Spain and of the other Member States of the Union?

(98/C 187/22)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3476/97

by Jose· Garc(cid:14)·a-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 (cid:145)interim review(cid:146) 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 (1). In its communication Agenda 2000 (2) 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.