WRITTEN QUESTION No. 293/98 by Johannes SWOBODA to the Commission. Reorganization of Structural Funds with a view to enlargement towards the East
Date: 1998-02-05
Institutions: European Parliament, SWOBODA
Subjects: Structural Funds, cross-border cooperation, development region, economic support, enlargement of the Union, frontier region, regional aid













EUR-Lex - 91998E0293 - EN






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91998E0293

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 293/98 by Johannes SWOBODA to the Commission. Reorganization of Structural Funds with a view to enlargement towards the East  


Official Journal C 223 , 17/07/1998 P. 0159 





WRITTEN QUESTION P-0293/98 by Johannes Swoboda (PSE) to the Commission (5 February 1998)Subject: Reorganization of Structural Funds with a view to enlargement towards the EastWith reference to the European Parliament's resolution (A4-0368/97, paragraph 34) calling for special assistance for border areas in connection with EU enlargement, can the Commission say whether the projected reorganization of the Structural Fund will include provisions for financial aid to regions sharing external borders with the applicant countries?Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (17 March 1998)Border regions may feel the impact of the opening of markets and of enlargement more quickly and intensively than other regions, but they will also benefit from their closeness to new markets providing new opportunities. The importance of these new markets for Community producers is evidenced by the rapid growth in trade between the Community and the Central and eastern European countries (CEECs) and the increasing surplus of the Community's trade balance with them. Furthermore, the impact of enlargement, in particular in sensitive areas, will be softened through transitional arrangements.In these circumstances, the Commission does not consider it necessary to create a special instrument for the regions sharing borders with the CEECs. In its view, the existing measures provide sufficient scope and flexibility to address the problems of these regions.Many of the border regions are already assisted by the structural funds. The new German Länder and Burgenland are at present, and are likely to remain, objective 1 regions. Most of the other border regions in Germany, Austria and Italy currently receive assistance under objective 5b. Given that under the new objective 2, it is foreseen that the Member States will be able to use national criteria for the selection of a significant share of their assisted areas, they can include border areas if it is considered they face specific problems.Apart from these ' mainstream ' programmes, the Commission proposes to maintain Interreg as one of three Community initiatives. Interreg is an appropriate instrument for tackling the specific problems of Community border regions with the CEECs. In combination with the PHARE-Cross-border cooperation (CBC) programme, it provides significant financial assistance to strengthen the economic ties across the borders concerned. Through its interventions, the accessibility of CEEC markets is improved and mutually beneficial cooperation on both sides of the border is supported.The specific design of Interreg for the new programming period has not been decided but it will leave sufficient flexibility to meet the needs of the border regions, as the Member States may propose the regions to be covered and the projects to be supported. Given the proposed reduction in the number of Community initiatives, it will also have a very significant financial envelope.