WRITTEN QUESTION P-3048/02 by Jean-Claude Fruteau (PSE) to the Commission. Regional policy.
Date: 2002-10-18
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU regional policy, accession to the European Union, eligibility criteria, less-favoured region, regional disparity

C 110 E/156

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

8.5.2003

the
the LIFE-Nature projects mentioned above include measures concerning the reinforcement of
populations of wild rabbits in areas potentially used by the Iberian lynx and the conservation and
recovery of cork oak forests in the same areas. Through agri-environmental measures, the Commission
promotes sustainable farming methods, which contribute in a significant way to the conservation of
nature.

(2003/C 110 E/175)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3048/02

by Jean-Claude Fruteau (PSE) to the Commission

(18 October 2002)

Subject: Regional policy

Enlargement is inevitable in political terms;
justification lies in the original purpose of
its historical
European integration, namely the establishment of lasting peace throughout Europe. The accession of ten
new countries, however, will raise certain problems in terms of the resulting marked disparities between
Member States. There is a real danger that the funds available for Objective 1 regions will be diluted as a
result of the ‘statistical effect’ of enlargement. It would be appropriate, therefore, to give thought to
devising additional criteria for eligibility to supplement the GDP criterion. Accessibility quotients could
provide a promising approach. Such quotients could take into account, for example, the distance between
a given region and the capital of the country to which it belongs, and would reflect more accurately the
problems certain regions have to overcome.

Would the Commission inform Parliament of the stage reached in its consideration of this question?

Answer given by Mr Barnier on behalf of the Commission

(8 November 2002)

It should be noted that the eligibility of the regions for the Structural Funds and the financial allocations
involved will remain unchanged until the end of 2006.

In the period after 2006, the regional disparities in an enlarged Union of 25 Member States will be greater
than in the current Union of Fifteen, as the Commission stated in the second Cohesion report and the first
interim report on economic and social cohesion.

Enlargement will bring about a reduction in the Union’s overall gross domestic product (GDP) per person.
As a result, some regions currently eligible for Objective 1 are likely to be above the eligibility threshold
(75 % of the Union’s GDP per person) in a Union of 25 Member States.

Those regions therefore risk failing to qualify for Objective 1 on the basis of the current eligibility criteria,
without having made any real progress on convergence.

The Commission will take account of this fact in its proposals for future regional policy. The proposals
should also take account of the situation in areas other than the regions whose development is lagging
behind and which must equally engage in social and economic restructuring.

The Commission will include concrete proposals on the priorities and eligibility criteria for its future policy
among other things in the third Cohesion report, to be published in autumn 2003.