WRITTEN QUESTION E-1893/02 by Marjo Matikainen-Kallström (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Regional aid and enlargement.
Date: 2002-07-01
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU aid, development aid, economic and social cohesion, eligible region, enlargement of the Union, less-favoured region, regional aid

6.2.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 28 E/151

According to the information received from the Spanish authorities, the open-cast coal mine in Valle de
Laciana, Villablino, León, has not received any financial contribution from the European Regional
Development Fund. The mine has been granted the required operation permit and the operating company
receives the statutory financial support within the legal framework established for coal mining operations.

(1) OJ L 206, 22.7.1992.
(2) OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.
(3) OJ L 175, 5.7.1985.
(4) OJ L 158, 23.6.1990.

(2003/C 28 E/173)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1893/02

by Marjo Matikainen-Kallström (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Regional aid and enlargement

(1 July 2002)

The European Union is expected to be enlarged by 10 countries in 2004. This consideration was taken
into account
interim report on social and economic cohesion, and its
communication puts forward guidelines for the future content of cohesion policy.

in the Commission’s first

In comparison to the current EU, the population of the candidate countries is poor and dependent on
agriculture. Calculations carried out with a view to a 25-Member State EU show that the effect of
lose their
enlargement will be that,
Objective 1 status. The Commission is also not planning to continue with Objective 2 after enlargement. It
has been stressed that policy will
in future concentrate on the Union’s poorest regions, which after
enlargement will be situated in the new Member States.

in 7 of the 15 current Member States, one or more regions will

One of the regions which would no longer have Objective 1 status is Eastern Finland, which will continue
to require EU aid after enlargement. What measures does the Commission propose to take to support the
poorest regions of the current Member States and preserve their viability?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(14 August 2002)

The Commission would remind the Honourable Member that enlargement will not affect the cohesion
policy until 2006, particularly where the eligibility of current Member States’ regions benefiting under this
policy is concerned. The Commission will be setting out its views on eligibility for Objective 1 in the post-
2006 period in the Third Cohesion Report, which it hopes to adopt before the end of 2003.

In addition, as the Commission stated in its Second Cohesion Report (1) and in its first progress report (2),
at this stage gross domestic product per head is the only reliable criterion for defining the regions whose
development is lagging behind and so are eligible for Objective 1. The issue of how to fix the eligibility
threshold is one that has yet to be settled. Furthermore, a fair solution has to be found for those regions
that have not yet achieved economic convergence but which will be affected by the statistical effect of
enlargement that will result in one or more regions of nine of the current Member States losing their
eligibility.

Lastly, the initial results of the debate on the future of the cohesion policy indicate broad agreement on
not restricting the policy solely to the regions whose development is lagging behind. Account should also
be taken of conditions such as permanent natural handicaps, sparsely populated areas, urban areas or areas
undergoing economic restructuring. With this in mind and in accordance with the principles of good
this assistance must be better directed towards Community priorities and must be
governance,
implemented in a more decentralised manner.

(1) COM(2001) 24 final.
(2) COM(2002) 46 final.