CELEX: 51983PC0649
Language: en
Date: 1983-11-18
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ( EEC ) AMENDING REGULATION ( EEC ) NO 724/75 ESTABLISHING A EUROPEAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND

31. 12.83                          Official Journal of the European Communities                          No C 360/1
                                                          II
                                                   (Preparatory Acts)
                                              COMMISSION
                     Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EEC) No 724/75
                                 establishing a European Regional Development Fund
                                                  COM(83) 649 final
                         (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 18 November 1983)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                   development and structural adaption of underdevel-
COMMUNITIES,                                                  oped regions and, secondly, the conversion of de-
                                                              clining industrial regions;
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Euro-
pean Economic Community, and in particular Ar-                Whereas it appears necessary, in view of the trends
ticle 235 thereof,                                            in the economic and social situation of the Commu-
                                                              nity, that the use of the Fund's resources as a whole
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commis-               should be governed by quantitative guidelines tak-
 sion,                                                        ing the form of indicative ranges of minimum and
                                                              maximum amounts of assistance that each Member
 Having regard to the opinion of the European Par-             State may receive during a five-year period and
 liament,                                                      involving a certain concentration compared with the
 Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and              distribution provided for in Regulation (EEC)
 Social Committee,                                             No 724/75;
 Whereas Council Regulation (EEC) No 724/75 (•),               Whereas, to improve the impact of Fund operations
 as last amended by Regulation (EEC) No 3325/                  and the complementary character of Fund opera-
 80 (2), established a European Regional Develop-              tions and those of national and regional authorities,
 ment Fund, hereinafter referred to as 'the Fund', de-         it is appropriate gradually to replace the financing
 signed to correct the main regional imbalances in             of individual investment projects by the financing of
 the Community;                                                programmes, which may concern both infrastructure
                                                               and national aid arrangements in relation to indus-
 Whereas Article 22 of the said Regulation provides            trial, handicraft and service activities;
 that the Council, on a proposal from the Commis-
 sion, should reconsider this Regulation before 1 Jan-        Whereas, in order to increase the effectiveness of
 uary 1982;                                                   Fund operations and to ensure a stronger link be-
                                                              tween the objectives of structural development and
  Whereas the coordination of national regional poli-         conversion of the regions and the objectives of other
  cies with each other and with that of the Community         Community policies, it is appropriate that Fund
  is an essential element of Community regional poli-         operations in the form of programmes should take
  cy, intended to promote the convergence of national         the form of either Community programmes taken at
  economies and a more balanced distribution of               the initiative of the Community, or national pro-
  economic activities within Community territory;             grammes of Community interest, where the initiative
                                                              lies with the Member States; whereas priority should
  Whereas the two tasks assigned to the Fund, which           be given to Community programmes;
  are directly related to the fundamental objectives of
  the Community's structural actions, are, first, the          Whereas the economic situation and that of employ-
                                                               ment in the Community require that the best pos-
  (>) OJ No L73, 21.3. 1975, p. 1.                             sible use of growth potential in less-favoured regions
  (2) OJ No L 349, 23. 12. 1980, p. 10.                        be sought; whereas to this end it is desirable to
 ---pagebreak--- No C 360/2                          Official Journal of the European Communities                            31. 12. 83
widen the range of activity of the Fund to include             2. The object of such coordination shall be to
the financing of operations designed to promote the            avoid inconsistencies between the policies referred
local development potential of regions;                        to in paragraph 1.
Whereas an accelerated procedure for payments by               This coordination shall also take account of the
the Fund would facilitate the successful conduct of            regional impact of Community and national eco-
operations assisted by the Fund; whereas the intro-            nomic and sectoral policies. The Commission shall
duction, under certain conditions, of, a system of             ensure that the resources of the European Regional
advance payments complies with this purpose;                   Development Fund and of the Community's other
                                                               financial instruments, to the extent to which they
Whereas to enable a better integration of financial            affect regional development, are used in a consistent
resources, both Community and national, in areas               manner.
affected by especially serious problems, due particu-
larly to delayed development or industrial or urban            3. For the regions located along internal Com-
decline, it is appropriate to promote the implemen-            munity frontiers, the Member States concerned shall
tation in those areas of integrated development                endeavour to pursue, — without prejudice to the
operations, closely concerted between the Com-                 application of Articles 92, 93 and 94 of the Treaty —
munity and the national authorities concerned,                 within the framework of their bilateral relations,
                                                               transfrontier coordination of regional development
                                                               by the means and at the levels which they jointly
 HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:                                  consider appropriate. In this context, they shall fos-
                                                               ter cooperation between the regional and local
                                                               bodies involved.
                          Article 1
 The enacting part of Regulation (EEC) No 724/75 is                                     Article 2
 hereby replaced by the text annexed to this Regula-
 tion.                                                           1. The periodic report, the regional development
                                                                programmes, regional impact assessment and the
                          Article 2                             European Regional Development Fund shall con-
                                                                tribute to the performance of the tasks provided for
This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January             in this Regulation.
 1984.                                                          Furthermore, coordination of general regional aid
 This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and           schemes shall be an essential feature.
 directly applicable in all Member States.                      2. After consulting the Regional Policy Commit-
                                                                tee, the Commission shall prepare a periodic report
                                                                on the situation and socio-economic changes in the
                                                                regions of the Community. To this end, Member
                          TITLE I                               States shall provide the Commission with the rele-
                                                                vant information permitting an analysis to be made
        COORDINATION OF REGIONAL POLICIES                       of regions or sub-regions which, as far as possible,
                          Article 1                             are comparable.
  1. In order to contribute to the achievement of a             The periodic report, prepared at intervals of two
  higher degree of convergence of the economies of              and a half years, coinciding on every second occa-
  Member States and to ensure a more balanced dis-              sion with the examination of the medium-term eco-
  tribution of economic activities within the territory         nomic policy programmes, shall be examined by the
  of the Community, Member States and the Commis-                Council after consultation of the European Parlia-
  sion shall coordinate:                                         ment and the Economic and Social Committee.
  — Community policies with each other, to the ex-               On the basis of this report the Commission shall,
       tent that they affect regional development, tak-          where appropriate, present proposals for Com-
       ing account of the aims of each of those poli-            munity regional policy guidelines and priorities.
       cies,
  — the guidelines and orientations of the Communi-              3. (a) Member States shall communicate to the
       ty's regional policy and those of the national                   Commission their regional development pro-
       regional policies,                                               grammes, and any amendments thereto, for
                                                                        the assisted regions and areas eligible for as-
   in accordance with the procedure laid down in Arti-                  sistance from the European Regional Devel-
   cle 2.                                                               opment Fund.
 ---pagebreak--- 31. 12. 83                           Official Journal of the European Communities                           No C 360/3
        Such programmes shall be prepared in ac-                        — the amounts of assistance made available
        cordance with the common outline drawn up                          under regional aid schemes,
        by the Regional Policy Committee (') and in                     — quantified information on the results of
        the light of the Commission recommendation                         measures taken to harness the region's in-
        of 23 May 1979 (2).                                                digenous potential.
        Where other regions or areas are covered by
        national regional policy measures, the Mem-             4. The Commission shall make a regional impact
        ber States shall also communicate to the Com-           assessment of Community economic and sectoral
        mission the corresponding programmes or                 policies in which it shall examine the main common
        other documents, which should indicate at               policies and essential measures which it proposes to
        least the priorities, objectives and financial          the Council. It shall inform the latter and the Euro-
        and operational means to be applied for the             pean Parliament of the way in which account is
                                                                taken of this assessment.
        development of the region.
        The regional development programmes shall
        be indicative in nature and shall specify the
        development objectives for the region and the
        practical measures to be applied. The regional                                 TITLE II
         authorities concerned shall be involved as                    GENERAL PROVISIONS RELATING TO THE
        much as possible in their preparation. When                 EUROPEAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND
         communicating these programmes to the                                          Article 3
         Commission, Member States shall, as far as
         possible, transmit to it the information con-          The purpose of the European Regional Develop-
         cerning, as regards their entire territory, the        ment Fund, hereinafter referred to as 'the Fund', is
         essential public measures that are likely to           to contribute to the development and structural ad-
         influence the regional balance, including ex-          justment of regions experiencing delayed develop-
         penditure in each region under their infra-            ment and to the conversion of declining industrial
         structure budgets.                                     regions.
         The regional development programmes and                                        Article 4
         other documents transmitted to the Commis-
         sion under this paragraph shall be examined,            1. The endowment of the Fund shall be determined
         in the light of their consistency with the Com-        annually in the general budget of the European
         munity's programmes and objectives, by the             Communities.
         Commission and the Regional Policy Com-
         mittee, which shall make known its views on            2. For the financial year in question, the budget
         them to the Commission. The latter shall,               shall show for the Fund:
         where necessary, address appropriate recom-
                                                                (a) the commitment appropriations;
         mendations to Member States.
                                                                 (b) the payment appropriations.
     (b) Before 1 July each year, Member States shall
         send to the Commission a report on the im-              Unless any specific provision of this Regulation pro-
         plementation of the regional development                vides otherwise, the Financial Regulation applicable
         programmes and the documents and pro-                   to the general budget of the Communities shall
         grammes mentioned at (a) above, giving for              apply to the management of the Fund.
         each region and for the preceding year:
         — quantified information on the results of              3. The Fund's resources shall be used on the basis
             measures carried out in the regions in              of ranges of which the upper and lower limits are
             terms of investment and jobs,                       shown below.
                                                                                                                     (in %)
         — the financial resources deployed, both
             from national and Community sources,                         Member State          Lower limit  Upper limit
             distinguishing, where applicable, those             Belgium                           0,85         1,20
             provided by the European Regional                   Denmark                           0,81         1,14
             Development Fund from those provided                Germany                           3,55         4,81
             under the Community's other financial              Greece                            11,05        15,60
             instruments,                                        France                           10,44        14,74
          — where possible, the rate of utilization of           Ireland                           5,05         7,13
             the major infrastructures completed dur-            Italy                            30,17        42,59
              ing the year,                                      Luxembourg                        0,06         0,08
                                                                 Netherlands                       0,95         1,34
 (') OJ No C 49, 24. 3. 1976, p. 2.                              United Kingdom                   20,23        28,56
 (2) OJ No C 143, 12. 6. 1979, p. 9.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 360/4                        Official Journal of the European Communities                          31. 12. 83
4. The upper and lower limits shall apply for a pe-                                  Chapter I
riod of five years. Within that period, they shall be                           Programme financing
indicative.
                                                                                      Section I
For each Member State, the lower limit of the range                         Community programmes
may be reached only if the assistance applied for
satisfies the conditions set out in Title III, and in                                Article 7
particular those relating to Community interest.
                                                             1. A Community programme means a coordinated
5. Where the portion of Fund resources falling               series of multiannual measures directly serving
within the upper and lower limits shown above is             Community objectives and the implementation of
concerned, allocation shall be made in the light of          Community policies. Its purpose shall be to help
the priority assigned to Community programmes as             resolve serious problems affecting the socio-eco-
referred to in Article 6 and in the light of the interest    nomic situation in one or more regions. It shall pro-
to the Community of the measures proposed by                 vide a better link between the Community's objec-
Member States, while respecting the conditions set           tives for the structural development and conversion
out in Title III.                                            of regions and the objectives of other Community
                                                             policies.
                                                             2. A Community programme shall normally con-
                                                             cern more than one Member State.
                       TITLE III                                                      Article 8
           THE OPERATIONS OF THE FUND
                                                              1. Community programmes shall be undertaken at
                        Article 5                            the Commission's initiative.
The Fund shall participate in the financing of:              Acting on a proposal from the latter and after con-
— Community programmes,                                       sulting the European Parliament, the Council shall
                                                              adopt by a qualified majority:
— national programmes of Community interest,
                                                             — the specific objectives,
— projects,
                                                             — the Community criteria for determining the terri-
— studies.
                                                                  torial scope,
                                                              — the nature and terms of assistance,
                        Article 6
                                                              that constitute the framework of the programme.
 1. A growing share of the Fund's resources shall be
 allocated to programme financing.                            2. The Fund's contribution to the financing of
                                                              Community programmes shall be determined in the
 2. Each Member State shall submit an appropriate
                                                              light of the socio-economic situation in the regions
 number of grant applications in the form of pro-
                                                              and the types of measure involved in the pro-
 grammes so that the Commission may ensure in its
                                                              grammes.
 management of the Fund that the share of assistance
 allocated to programme financing, including Com-             3. On the basis of the framework set out in para-
 munity programmes, is equal to at least 10 % of the          graph 1, a programme shall be drawn up in consul-
 available appropriations at the end of the second            tation with the authorities of the Member State or
 year, 20 % at the end of the third year and 40 % at           States concerned.
 the end of the fourth year.
                                                               It shall be adopted in the manner provided for in
 3. The. obligation referred to in paragraph 2 shall           Articles 14 and 39.
 not apply to those Member States whose upper limit
 to the range referred to in Article 4 (3) does not
 exceed 2 %.                                                                           Article 9
 4. The above percentages may be amended by the                Community programmes shall include at least the
 Council, acting on a proposal from the Commis-                following:
 sion.                                                         (a) the areas and regions receiving Fund assistance;
  5. During the period referred to in paragraph 2,             (b) the objectives as defined by the Council and the
 Community programmes shall be given rising                        expected results, where possible in quantified
 priority.                                                         form;
 ---pagebreak---  31. 12.83                         Official Journal of the European Communities                         No C 360/5
 (c) the nature of the operations involving the               2. In particular, such measures shall concern,
     Fund;                                                   jointly or separately, infrastructure investments, aid
                                                              schemes for industry, craft industries and services,
 (d) the financing arrangements;                              and operations to exploit the potential for internally
                                                              generated development.
(e) the assistance made available by the national
     authorities;
 (f) the amount of Fund assistance and the interven-
     tions, where applicable, of other Community in-
     struments ;                                                                      Article 12
(g) the categories of recipients of Fund assistance;          1. National programmes of Community interest
                                                             shall be undertaken on the initiative of Member
                                                             States. The Member State concerned shall first pre-
(h) where applicable, related measures essential for
                                                             pare the programme in asssociation with the autho-
     implementing the programmes, and, in particu-
                                                             rities or bodies concerned within the limits laid
     lar, measures necessary in the field of training
                                                             down by national legislation, and then present it to
     and for the protection of the environment;
                                                             the Commission. The Commission shall examine
                                                             whether the measures provided for by the pro-
(i) the arrangements for publicizing the provision of        gramme are consistent with all the operations to
     Fund assistance, for the purpose of informing           assist the region carried out by the public authorities
     potential recipients and business interests of the      of the Member State concerned and with the objec-
     opportunities offered by the programme and of           tives and priorities of Community policies.
     the role played by the Community.
                                                             2. Programmes shall be assessed on the basis of
                                                             their contribution to:
                        Article 10                           (a) the economic development of the region, in par-
1. Where a Community programme concerns a terri-                  ticular as regards:
tory covered by a regional development programme,                 — the impact on employment,
the latter shall, where appropriate, be adapted.                  — the improvement of productivity,
                                                                  — the diversification of economic structures,
2. When a Community programme concerns a ter-                     — the accelerated provision of the necessary in-
ritory not covered by a regional development pro-                     frastructure facilities,
gramme, a regional development programme for the                  — the careful use of natural resources;
area shall be drawn up and presented by the Mem-
ber State concerned to the Commission within three           (b) the attainment of Community objectives, in par-
months following adoption of the Community pro-                   ticular as regards:
gramme.
                                                                  — the consistency of the programme's objec-
                                                                      tives and measures with Community objec-
                                                                      tives and policies,
                                                                  — the integrated use of any other Community
                        Section II                                    financial instrument for structural purposes.
       National programmes of Community                               Other Community assistance shall thus be
                        interest                                      coordinated with Fund assistance in such a
                                                                      way as to promote convergent measures in a
                        Article 11                                    given region in order to guarantee, in particu-
                                                                      lar, consistency between regional policy and
 1. A national programme of Community interest                        other Community policies.
means a coherent set of multiannual measures serv-
ing national and Community objectives and poli-              3. Regions and areas which may benefit from
cies, as defined either at national or Community lev-        Fund assistance through national programmes of
el. In particular, it shall assist the convergence of        Community interest shall be limited to those assisted
Member States' economies through a reduction of              areas designated by Member States for the purposes
regional disparities. It shall translate into opera-         of their regional aid schemes. In the selection of pro-
tional commitments the indications contained in re-          grammes, priority shall be given to investments in
gional development programmes. It may concern                national priority areas, taking account of the princi-
part of a region or one or more regions, in one or           ples for the coordination at Community level of
more Member States.                                          regional aids.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 360/6                          Official Journal of the European Communities                             31. 12. 83
4. National programmes of Community interest                       — in the case of the co-financing of aid
shall form part of the regional development pro-                       schemes: the priorities and criteria for select-
grammes referred to in Article 2 (3).                                  ing investment projects,
                                                                   — in the case of operations to exploit the poten-
5. If the Commission considers that the draft pro-                     tial for internally generated development: a
gramme submitted merits assistance from the Fund,                      description of the operations as laid down in
it shall so inform the Member State concerned, ad-                      Article 16.
ding its observations. The Commission and the
Member State shall by common consent finalize the              2. For national programmes of Community inter-
programme. The programme shall be adopted as                   est relating to:
laid down in Articles 14 and 39.                               — infrastructure investment projects, the provisions
                                                                   of Article 19 shall apply,
6. The Fund's contribution to the financing of na-             — investment projects in industry, craft industries
tional programmes of Community interest shall be                   and services, the provisions of Article 20 (1) and
determined in the light of the socio-economic situa-               (2) shall apply.
tion of the regions and the types of measure in-
volved. It may amount to 65 % of the total public
expenditure taken into account in the programmes.
                                                                                        Section III
                                                                                 Common provisions
                         Article 13                                                      Article 14
1. National programmes of Community interest                   1. A programme which is the subject of an agree-
shall include the following:                                   ment between the Commission and the Member
(a) an indication of the regions or areas concerned;           State or States concerned and has been adopted by
                                                               the Commission after consultation with the Fund
(b) the objectives and the results expected, where             Committee in accordance with the procedure laid
     possible in quantified form;                              down in Article 39 shall constitute a 'programme
(c) the nature of the measures;                                contract'.
(d) the operations and assistance planned and their
                                                               2. Decisions on the grant of Fund assistance for
     time scale;                                               programme financing shall be published in the
(e) a forward plan for financing the programme,                Official Journal of the European Communities.
     making a distinction between the various sources
     of national finance and highlighting the fact that
     Fund assistance takes the form of an overall sup-
     plementary financial contribution in favour of                                      Article 15
     the regions or areas concerned;
                                                                1. The Commission shall supply national and re-
(f) an indication of the authorities or agencies re-           gional administrations which so wish with technical
     sponsible for implementing the various parts of           assistance to help them in the preparation and im-
     the programme;                                            plementation of the programmes.
 (g) where applicable, related measures essential for
     the implementation of the programme and, in                2. (a) Each year before 1 June the Member State
     particular, measures necessary in the field of                    concerned, or the bodies responsible for im-
     training and for the protection of the environ-                   plementing the programmes, shall submit to
      ment which are undertaken in the Member State                    the Commission a progress report for each
      and receive no financial assistance from the                      programme concerning the preceding calen-
      Community;                                                        dar year, with reference to the information
                                                                        required under Articles 9 and 13. This report
 (h) the arrangements for publicizing the provisions                    shall be such as to enable the Commission to
      of Fund assistance, for the purpose of informing                  satisfy itself as to the implementation of the
      potential recipients and business interests of the                programmes, to take note of their effects,
      opportunities offered by the programme and of                     where possible in quantified form, and, where
      the role played by the Community;                                 applicable, to establish that the operations are
 (i) — i n the case of infrastructure investment pro-                   being carried out in a consistent manner. The
          grammes: a description of the most signifi-                   report shall be communicated to the Fund
          cant projects,                                                Committee.
 ---pagebreak--- 31. 12. 83                          Official Journal of the European Communities                            No C 360/7
    (b) On this basis, the Commission shall report to          (e) aid to increase the efficiency of undertakings by
        the Council and the European Parliament as                  making it easier for them to obtain management
        laid down in Article 45.                                    or organization advice; this aid shall cover the
    (c) In the event of a programme in the course of                expenditure of undertakings on services pro-
        implementation being substantially amended,                 vided by consultancy firms or agencies;
        the procedure provided for in Article 39 shall         (f) start-up aids to facilitate the establishment of ser-
        apply.                                                      vices common to several undertakings and cov-
    (d) Upon completion of each programme, the                      ering part of the operating expenditure of the
        Commission shall inform the Fund Commit-                    common services;
        tee of the results achieved.                           (g) aid to improve exploitation of the regional po-
                                                                    tential for tourism and covering part of the oper-
                                                                    ating expenses of agencies for the promotion and
                                                                    coordinated management of accommodation;
                                                               (h) measures to promote the establishment and ex-
                                                                    pansion of these undertakings by providing them
                                                                    with easier access to the capital market.
                                                               2. Within the limits laid down by national legisla-
                                                               tion, the Fund may also make a contribution to-
                        Chapter II                             wards expenditure by national, regional or local au-
     Measures to exploit the potential for internally          thorities on the planning, technical preparation and
          generated development of the regions                 implementation of operations in respect of which a
                                                               Member State has applied for aid from the Fund.
                         Article 16
1. For the purposes of greater exploitation of the
potential for internally generated development of
regions, the Fund may contribute, within the frame-
work of the programmes, to the financing of meas-
ures for assisting undertakings, especially small and
medium-sized undertakings, in industry, craft indus-
tries and the tourist industry in order to:
— provide them with facilities enabling them to ex-
     pand their activities and to obtain access to new                                  Article 17
     technology,
                                                                1. The Fund contribution to the measures provided
— facilitate their access to the capital market.
                                                                for in Article 16 may not exceed 65 % of the public
These measures shall involve in particular:                     financing for each measure or series of measures
                                                                covered by one and the same programme contract.
(a) aid for studies to help identify the opportunities          The contribution for each study or enquiry may not
     for internally generated development in the re-            exceed 70000 ECU.
     gions assisted by the Fund;
(b) aid for the establishment and operation of local            2. The Fund contribution to the financing of the
     and regional agencies for applied research to              measures referred to in Article 16 may not exceed
     further internally generated regional develop-              15 % of the appropriations allocated to each Mem-
     ment;                                                      ber State over a given three-year period.
 and in the case of small and medium-sized under-
 takings only:                                                  This limit shall not apply to those Member States
                                                                whose upper limit of the range referred to in Arti-
 (c) financing the transfer of technology through
                                                                cle 4 (3) does not exceed 2 %.
      operating aids for agencies compiling and dis-
      seminating information on product and techno-
      logical innovations and for feasibility studies           3. The Fund contribution shall be decided by the
      and projects permitting the application of these          Commission in accordance with the procedure refer-
      innovations in undertakings;                              red to in Article 39.
 (d) aid for sectoral studies to improve knowledge of
      opportunities for access to national Community            4. In the case of the same recipient and the same
      and external markets and for the dissemination             measure, the aids referred to in Article 16 may not
      of the results of such studies;                            last longer than three years.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 360/8                         Official Journal of the European Communities                          31. 12. 83
                      Chapter III                                                    Article 20
                    Project financing
                                                              1. Investment projects in industry, craft industries
                        Article 18                            or services which may be assisted by the Fund shall
                                                              relate to economically sound activities which are
 1. The Fund may contribute to the financing of               intended to create or preserve permanent jobs.
investment projects costing more than 75000 ECU
each, in industry, craft industries, services or in           Where the intention is to preserve jobs, the invest-
infrastructure, under the conditions laid down in
                                                              ments shall fall within the framework of a conver-
this Chapter.
                                                              sion or restructuring plan to ensure that the under-
                                                              taking concerned is competitive. Preference shall,
2. Investments may benefit from the Fund's assi-              however, be given to operations which both main-
stance only if they fall within the framework of a            tain existing jobs and create new jobs.
regional development programme the implementa-
tion of which is such as to contribute to correction          2. Official aids to be taken into consideration in
of the main regional imbalances within the Commu-             determining Fund assistance shall be grants, inter-
nity which may prejudice the proper functioning of            est-rate subsidies or their equivalent where loans at
the common market and the convergence of the                  reduced rates of interest are concerned, irrespective
Member States' economies, with a view, in particu-            of whether such aid is linked to the amount of
lar, to the attainment of economic and monetary               investment or to the number of jobs created.
union.
                                                              Such aids may include aid to an investment project
3. Regions and areas which may benefit from the               involving the transfer of plant and workers. The aid
 Fund by way of projects shall be limited to those            equivalent shall be calculated in accordance with an
aided areas established by Member States in apply-            Implementing Regulation adopted pursuant to Arti-
ing their systems of regional aids. When projects are         cle 39. Aid granted in the form of rent reductions or
selected, priority shall be given to investments in           exemptions in respect of buildings, including plant,
 national priority areas, taking account of the princi-       may also be taken into account provided the same
 ples for the coordination at Community level of              calculation can be carried out.
 regional aids.
                                                              3. Service activities qualifying for assistance shall
                                                              be those concerned with tourism and those having a
                                                              choice of location. Such activities should have a
                                                              direct impact on the development of the region and
                        Article 19                            on the level of employment. Tourist activities must
                                                              contribute to the development of tourism in the
 1. Infrastructure investment projects which may be           region or area in question.
 assisted by the Fund shall be those the cost of which
 is borne wholly or partly by public authorities or by
 any other agency responsible, in the same way as a           4. The contribution from the Fund may, pursuant
 public authority, for the creation of infrastructures.        to a prior decision of the Member State concerned
                                                               communicated at the same time as the request for
                                                               this contribution, either supplement aid granted to
 Within the limits defined in the Annex, infrastruc-           the relevant investment by public authorities or re-
 ture projects to be financed shall contribute to the          main credited to those authorities and considered as
 development of the region or area in which they are           a partial repayment of such aid.
 situated.
 2. Exceptionally, and after consultation of the
 Fund Committee in accordance with the procedure                                     Article 21
 provided for in Article 39, aid from the Fund may
 be granted for all or part of infrastructure invest-          1. In the case of investment projects in industry,
 ments which, although not located in an eligible              craft industries and services, the amount of the
 region or area as defined in Article 18 (3), are situ-        Fund's contribution may not exceed 50 % of the aid
  ated in an area adjacent to such a region or area and        granted to each project by the public authorities
 are an essential complement to its infrastructure fa-         under a regional aid scheme.
 cilities. The Fund's aid shall cover only that part of
 the investment required to develop the region or               2. In respect of infrastructure investment projects,
  area in question.                                            the amount of the Fund's contribution shall be 40 %
 ---pagebreak--- 31. 12. 83                         Official Journal of the European Communities                          No C 360/9
of the total expenditure charged to a public author-          Fund's contribution and shall inform the Fund
ity or equivalent body where the project costs less           Committee of its decisions.
than 10 million ECU, and between 20 and 40% in
the case of projects costing 10 million ECU or
more.
                                                                                       Article 23
However, the maximum contribution may rise to
50 % in the case of projects of particular importance         1. Applications for Fund assistance shall be sub-
to the development of the region in which they are            mitted to the Commission by Member States, to-
located.                                                      gether with such information as will enable the
                                                              Commission to assess the merit of the investment
                                                              projects in the light of Articles 2 and 22.
                                                              2. In the case of investment projects costing less
                        Article 22                            than 10 million ECU, Member States shall present
                                                              grouped applications at the beginning of each quart-
 1. The provision of Fund assistance shall be de-             er. These applications shall be submitted on a re-
cided upon by the Commission in the light of the              gion-by-region basis, a distinction being made be-
relative severity of the economic imbalance of the            tween investment projects in industry, craft indus-
region in which the investment project is carried out         tries or services and infrastructure investment pro-
and of the direct or indirect impact of the project on       jects.
employment. The Commission shall examine, in
particular, the consistency of the project with all the       The applications shall state:
measures taken by the Member State concerned to               (a) in respect of investment projects in industry,
assist that region, as described in the information               craft industries or services:
supplied by Member States pursuant to Article 2,
with particular reference to:                                 the names of the undertakings concerned, their sec-
                                                              tor of activity, and the location of each investment
(a) the project's contribution to the economic devel-
                                                              and its object (setting up, extension, conversion or
    opment of the region;
                                                              restructuring of an establishment), the total amount
(b) its consistency with the Community's pro-                 of investment involved and the part taken into ac-
    grammes or objectives;                                    count in the application for aid, the predicted over-
(c) the situation in the economic sector concerned            all effect on employment (creation or maintenance
    and the profitability of the investment made;             of jobs), proposed time scale for implementation,
                                                              total aids granted in connection with which Fund
(d) whether the project is located in a frontier area,        assistance is applied for, and the planned schedule
    i.e. in a region adjacent to one or more other            of payments;
    Member States;
                                                              (b) in respect of infrastructure investment projects:
(e) delays and imbalances due to the fact that the                the location of each project and its object, its
    area which the investment is intended to benefit              contribution to the development of the region,
    is located on an island, or is a peripheral area;             predicted total expenditure and expenditure to
(f) the effects of the investment on the region's natu-           be borne by public authorities and also expendi-
    ral resources;                                                ture taken into account in the application for
(g) other assistance granted by Community institu-                aid, the planned schedule of payments, the
    tions or by the European Investment Bank either               names of the responsible authorities, the total
    in respect of the same project or for other meas-             amount of Fund assistance applied for, and the
    ures in the same region; other Community assist-              estimated time scale for implementation.
    ance shall therefore be coordinated with Fund
    assistance in such a way as to promote conver-            3. In the case of investment projects costing 10
    gent measures in a given region in order to               million ECU or more, applications shall be submit-
    guarantee, in particular, consistency between             ted separately and shall include the following infor-
    regional policy and other Community policies.             mation:
                                                              (a) in respect of projects in industry, craft industries
                                                                  or services:
 2. In the case of investment projects costing
 10 million ECU or more, the Commission shall de-                 the name of the undertaking, the sector of activi-
 cide on the Fund's contribution in accordance with               ty, the object of the project and its location, the
 the procedure provided for in Article 39.                        effect on employment, the proposed time scale
                                                                  for implementation, the details of any grants,
 In the case of investment projects costing less than             interest-rate subsidies or loans at reduced rates
 10 million ECU, the Commission shall decide on the                of interest, the planned schedule for payment of
 ---pagebreak--- No C 360/10                         Official Journal of the European Communities                          31.12.83
     such aids, any other form of aid granted or plan-         The Commission shall decide on the Fund's contri-
     ned by the public authorities and the financing           bution and shall inform the Fund Committee of the
     plan, indicating in particular any other Commu-           studies carried out and the results obtained.
     nity aids applied for or provided for, the portion
     of these aids taken into consideration in the ap-         2. The Fund may contribute to prior and subse-
     plication for assistance, the total investment and        quent assessments of the economic efficiency of,
     the portion taken into consideration in the appli-        and Community interest in, Fund programmes or
     cation for assistance, the time scale provided for        projects with the assistance of experts.
     the payment of aids and in addition a profitabil-
     ity analysis.
     The Member State shall specify in its application
     the total amount of assistance which, in its opin-
      ion, should be granted to the undertaking and the                               TITLE IV
      contribution it is seeking from the Community.                COMMITMENTS, PAYMENTS AND CHECKS
 (b) in respect of infrastructure projects:                                           Chapter I
the responsible authority, the object of the project,                                Programmes
its location, its contribution to the development of
the region, its cost, the financing plan, the expendi-                                Article 26
ture to be borne by public authorities and also ex-
penditure taken into account in the application for             1. The budget appropriations for the financing of a
aid, the time-scale for implementation, the amount              programme shall be committed, according to budge-
of Fund assistance applied for and other Commun-               tary availability, in tranches covering a period of
ity aid applied for or provided for, the planned               one year. The first tranche shall be committed as
 schedule of payments and a cost-benefit analysis.              soon as the grant decision is taken by the Commis-
                                                                sion. Subsequent tranches shall be committed ac-
 4. Provision of Fund assistance shall be decided               cording to progress on the programme.
 upon by the Commission:
(a) on an aggregated basis for application covered             2. Expenditure which the authorities or other
     by paragraph 2;                                           organizations concerned have incurred or expect to
                                                                incur from 1 January of the year in which the pro-
 (b) on a case-by-case basis for applications covered
                                                               gramme is submitted to the Commission shall be eli-
     by paragraph 3.                                           gible for Fund assistance.
 5. Member States shall give priority to the submis-
 sion of grant applications in respect of projects cost-
 ing 10 million ECU or more.
                                                                                       Article 27
                          Article 24                             1. Each payment claim shall be accompanied by a
  1. The investors concerned shall be informed, in              certificate issued by the Member State attesting to
 agreement with the Member States concerned, that               the execution of the operations and the existence of
 part of the aid granted to them has been provided by           detailed supporting documents, and shall contain
 the Community.                                                 the following information:
 2. In the case of infrastructure projects, Member
 States, in agreement with the Commission, shall take           — object of the operations covered by the payment
 all necessary steps to ensure that the assistance from             claim,
 the Fund is given suitable publicity.                          — amount and type of expenditure incurred in res-
  3. The list of projects that have received Fund                   pect of the individual operations during the
  assistance shall be published every six months in the             period covered by the claim,
  Official Journal of the European Communities.                  — confirmation that the operations described in the
  For each project the list shall specify its object, its           claim were started as provided for in the pro-
  precise location, the name of the investor and the                 gramme.
  amount of the assistance granted.
                                                                 2. The Member State shall keep available to the
                                                                 Commission for a period of three years following
                         Chapter IV                              the last payment made in connection with the pro-
                            Studies                              gramme all the documents in support of expenditure
                                                                 incurred under the programme or certified copies
                           Article 25                            thereof. The Commission may make a detailed ex-
   1. The Fund shall contribute to the financing of               amination of each individual project implemented
  studies closely related to its operations.                      under the programme.
 ---pagebreak---  31. 12.83                         Official Journal of the European Communities                          No C 360/11
3. The Commission shall make the payments:                    tion by the Member State concerned of quarterly
— to the public authorities commissioning the work            statements certifying expenditure and the existence
     where the programme contract concerns the                of detailed supporting documents and containing
     financing of an infrastructure investment                the following information:
     programme,                                               (a) for interim payment claims:
— to an agency designated for this purpose by the                 — the name of the undertaking concerned or, in
     Member State concerned where the programme                       the case of infrastructure projects, the name
     contract concerns the financing of a State aid                   of the responsible authority,
     scheme in industry, craft industries or services.            — the location of the project,
                                                                  — total public expenditure incurred after the
                                                                      date referred to in Article 30 and that part of
                       Chapter II                                     the amount in respect of which payment is
    Measures to exploit the potential for internally                  applied for,
          generated development of the regions                    — the amount of the payment requested from
                                                                      the Fund,
                        Article 28
                                                                  — a statement projecting future payment
1. Payment claims shall be submitted to the Com-                      claims;
mission by Member States, together with a certifi-
                                                              (b) for final payment claims, all the information re-
cate issued by the latter attesting to the execution of           ferred to at (a), with the exception of the last
the operations and the existence of detailed support-             indent, together with:
ing documents; they shall contain the following in-
formation :                                                       — the amount actually invested and confirma-
                                                                      tion that the project carried out corresponds
— object of the operations covered by the payment                     to the project originally planned,
    claim,                                                        — the date of completion of the project,
— amount and type of expenditure incurred in res-                 — the number of jobs created or maintained,
    pect of the individual operations during the                      where the project is in industry, the craft
    period covered by the claim,                                      industries or services,
— confirmation that the operations described in the               — the amounts of public expenditure,
    payment application have been commenced in                    — an assessment of the economic effectiveness
    accordance with the programme.                                    of the measures undertaken.
2. The Commission shall make the payments to the
public authorities, agencies or businesses con-              2. Where expenditure provided for in the decisions
cerned.                                                       referred to in Article 23 consists of aids granted in
                                                             the form of interest-rate subsidies or loans at re-
3. The aids provided for in Article 16 (1) shall not         duced rates of interest, the amount of the Fund's
reduce the undertakings' share of total expenditure           contribution in respect of such aids that is still due
to less than 20 %.                                           when the projects are completed shall be paid in a
                                                             single transaction upon presentation of the certifi-
4. The Member State in question shall keep availa-           cate attesting to the completion of the projects.
ble to the Commission for a period of three years
following the final payment made in connection               3. Accelerated payments under a decision to grant
with the programme all the documents in support of            aid from the Fund may be granted by the Commis-
expenditure incurred under the programme or certif-          sion to a Member State on the latter's request. They
ied copies thereof. The Commission shall have the            may not exceed 75 % of the total amount of aid from
right to make a detailed examination of each indivi-         the Fund. Such accelerated payments shall be sub-
dual project implemented under the programme.                ject to the condition that at least 30 % of the pay-
                                                             ments constituting the basis for aid from the Fund
                                                             have been made.
                      Chapter III
                   Investment projects                        4. Member States shall designate the authorities or
                                                              agencies authorized to issue the certificates referred
                        Article 29                            to in this Article. In the case of infrastructure invest-
                                                              ment projects, the Commission shall make the pay-
 1. The amount of Fund assistance, calculated,                ments to the bodies commissioning the projects.
where applicable, on the basis of the aid equivalent
according to an Implementing Regulation adopted               In the case of investment projects in industry or
pursuant to Article 39, shall be paid upon presenta-          the service sector, payments shall be made to the
 ---pagebreak--- No C 360/12                        Official Journal of the European Communities                              31. 12. 83
Member State or to a body designated by it for                where national aid used as the basis for calculating
this purpose.                                                 the amount of Fund assistance has been repaid to
                                                              the Member State concerned by the investor.
                        Article 30                            2. Member States shall make available to the Com-
                                                              mission all the information necessary to ensure ef-
The Commission shall take into consideration for              fective operation of the Fund and shall take all steps
Fund assistance payments made by the Member                   to facilitate such monitoring operations as the Com-
States as from the 12th month before the date on              mission may deem useful for Fund management
which it receives the application for assistance, in          purposes, including on-site inspections. They shall
respect of investments not completed by the latter            notify the Commission of the cases referred to in the
date. This period shall be increased to 24 months for         first subparagraph of paragraph 1.
payments in respect of investment projects in Green-
land.                                                         3. Without prejudice to checks carried out by
                                                              Member States in accordance with national laws,
                                                              regulations or administrative provisions and without
                       Chapter IV                             prejudice to Article 206 of the Treaty or to any
                        Advances                              inspection arranged on the basis of Article 209 (c) of
                                                              the Treaty, on-site inspections or enquiries in respect
                        Article 31                            of operations financed by the Fund shall be carried
                                                              out by the competent authorities of the Member
 1. In the case of measures referred to in Title III,          State and by officials of the Commission or any
 Chapters I and II, advances of up to 80 % of the             other persons empowered by the Commission for
 Fund aid committed may be granted by the Fund                this purpose. The Commission shall determine the
 according to the state of progress of the operations.        time limits for the performance of the checks and
                                                               shall inform the Member State concerned of them in
 2. At the Member State's request, the Commission              advance in order to obtain all the assitance neces-
 may, as from the scheduled starting date for the              sary.
 operations, make an initial advance of aid from the
 first annual tranche.                                         4. The purpose of such on-site inspections and en-
                                                               quiries in respect of operations financed by the
 3. Applications for advances in respect of subse-             Fund shall be to verify:
 quent annual tranches may be. submitted provided
 that the Member State certifies that at least 30 % of         (a) the conformity of administrative practices with
 the advance received from the preceding tranche has                Community rules;
 been disbursed.                                               (b) the existence of supporting documents and their
                                                                    correspondence to the operations financed by
 4. The balance of each tranche shall be paid at the                the Fund;
 request of the Member State upon presentation of a
 certified statement that the operations covered by            (c) the conditions under which operations financed
 the tranche in question may be deemed to have been                 by the Fund are executed and monitored;
 completed, and of a statement of public expenditure           (d) the conformity of the projects carried out with
 incurred.                                                          the operations financed by the Fund;
                                                               (e) the economic effectiveness of the operations fi-
                                                                    nanced by the Fund and their coherence with the
                                                                    objectives and priorities of Community policies.
                        Chapter V                               5. The Commission may suspend payment of assis-
                 Monitoring operations                         tance in respect of a particular operation if a check
                                                                reveals irregularities or a substantial change in the
                        Article 32                              object or conditions of the project for which the
                                                                Commission's approval has not been sought.
  1. Where a measure granted assistance from the
  Fund has not been carried out as planned, or where            6. By way of derogation from Article 6 (2) of the
 the conditions imposed by the provisions which gov-            Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 appli-
  ern the measure are not fulfilled, the Fund assis-            cable to the general budget of the European Com-
  tance in question may be reduced or cancelled if the          munities ( ! ), if an operation granted assistance from
  Commission, after consulting the Fund Committee,              the Fund has not been completed or has been car-
  so decides.                                                   ried out in such a manner that payment of only part
  Member States shall repay to the Commission the
  amount of Fund assistance received in all cases               (i) OJ No L 356, 31. 12. 1977, p. 1.
 ---pagebreak--- 31.12.83                            Official Journal of the European Communities                           No C 360/13
of the Fund assistance granted in respect of that pro-        (b) the Community, through the joint use of various
ject is justified, the remaining portion of Fund assis-            structural financial instruments, and the national
tance shall be allocated to another operation in one               and local authorities in Member States con-
of the eligible regions of the same Member State                   tribute in a closely coordinated manner to their
under the conditions laid down in this Regulation.                 implementation.
Where an operation has not been the object of any              3. The Member State concerned shall ensure con-
payment for four years and where no explanation                certed use of Community and national financial re-
for the delay has been received from the Member                sources and close coordination between the public
State concerned within a period fixed by the Com-              authorities involved in the execution of the inte-
mission, that operation shall be considered not be             grated operation.
have been executed and that part of the Fund's assis-
tance shell be reallocated.                                    4. The Commission shall likewise ensure concerted
                                                               use of the Community's structural financial re-
Any sums paid shall be repaid to the Community by              sources.
the Member State concerned or, where applicable,
by the body to which the Fund contribution has                 5. The level of Fund assistance to investment pro-
been paid, within 12 months of the date on which              jects and measures forming part of the operations
the relevant decision was notified, unless the provi-          referred to in this Article may be increased by 10
sions of the first subparagraph apply.                         points in accordance with the procedure laid down
                                                               in Article 39.
                         Article 33
 Within three years of completion of the measures
 financed by the Fund, Member States shall inform
the Commission of the following:
— in the case of investment projects in industry,                                       Chapter II
     craft industries or the services sector, the number                             Other provisions
     of jobs created,
— in the case of infrastructure investment projects                                      Article 35
     costing more than 10 million ECU, the rate of
                                                               All or part of the Fund assistance granted may be in
     utilization of the infrastructure in question,
                                                               the form of an interest-rate subsidy on Community
     where such information is available.
                                                               loans.
                                                                In order to favour aid to investment by small and
                                                               medium-sized undertakings in industry, the craft in-
                          TITLE V                              dustries and the services sector, the Member States
                                                               and the Commission shall allocate at least 5 % of the
                    FINAL PROVISIONS                            Fund's total endowment for assistance in the form
                         Chapter I                              of interest-rate subsidies on Community loans for
            Integrated development operations                   small and medium-sized undertakings.
                         Article 34
  1. In the granting of Fund assistance, investment                                      Article 36
 projects and measures referred to in Title III which
 form part of an integrated development operation               The Member States, in submitting their applications,
 may be accorded priority treatment.                            and the Commission, in administering the Fund,
                                                                shall, in so far as is possible, ensure that at least 40 %
 2. An integrated development operation shall com-              of the Fund's total endowment is allocated to invest-
 prise a coherent set of public and private measures            ments in industry, the craft industries and the ser-
 and investment projects which have the following               vices sector during a given three-year period.
  characteristics:
 (a) they relate to a limited geographical area af-
     fected by particularly serious problems involv-
     ing, in particular, delayed development or indus-                                   Article 37
     trial or urban decline and which are likely to
     affect the development of the region in ques-              An investment project may benefit from Fund aid
     tion;                                                      under only one of Articles 8, 12, 16 or 18.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 360/14                        Official Journal of the European Communities                            31. 12. 83
                        Article 38                                                   Article 43
 1. A European Regional Development Fund Com-                 Assistance from the Fund shall not distort the condi-
mittee, hereinafter referred to as 'the Committee', is        tions of competition in a manner incompatible with
hereby established. It shall be composed of repre-            the principles set out in the relevant provisions of
sentatives of the Member States and chaired by a              the Treaty and elaborated upon in the principles for
representative of the Commission.                             the coordination of the general regional aid
                                                              schemes. In particular, the provisions of this Regula-
2. Within the Committee, the votes of the Member              tion shall not prejudice the application of Arti-
States shall be weighted in accordance with Arti-             cles 92, 93 and 94 of the Treaty, particularly as
cle 148 (2) of the Treaty. The chairman shall not             regards establishing and modifying the areas aided
vote.                                                         by national regional aid schemes.
                        Article 39
                                                                                     Article 44
 1. Where the procedure laid down in this Article is
to be followed, the chairman shall bring the matter           The Commission shall ensure that, as far as statistics
before the Committee, either on his own initiative or         allow, account is taken of the situation of and out-
at the request of a representative of a Member                look for the employment of women and the different
State.                                                        age groups:
2. The representative of the Commission shall sub-            — in the preparation of the coordination instru-
mit drafts of decisions to be taken. The Committee                ments referred to in Article 2, and in particular
shall deliver its opinion on such drafts within a time            in the regional development programmes and the
limit that the chairman may determine in the light of             reports on their implementation,
the urgency of the matters under consideration.
Opinions of the Committee shall be adopted by a               — in the applications for assistance for investment
majority of 45 votes.                                             programmes and projects,
3. The Commission shall take decisions which                  — in the Fund assistance decisions concerning
shall apply immediately. However, decisions not in                those applications,
accordance with the opinion of the Committee shall            — in the preparation of the reports on the imple-
forthwith be communicated by the Commission to                    mentation of this Regulation referred to in Arti-
the Council. In that event, the Commission shall                  cle 45.
defer application of the decisions taken by it for not
more than two months from the date of such com-
munication. The Council, acting by a qualified ma-                                   Article 45
jority, may take a different decision within two              1. Before 1 October each year, the Commission
months.                                                       shall present to the Council, to the European Parlia-
                        Article 40                            ment and to the Economic and Social Committee a
                                                              report on the implementation of this Regulation
The Committee may consider any other matter relat-            during the preceding year.
ing to the Fund's operation referred to it by its chair-
man, either on his own initiative or at the request of        2. The report shall describe the financial manage-
a representative of a Member State.                           ment of the Fund and present the Commission's
                                                              conclusions based on the monitoring operations car-
                                                              ried out in respect of the Fund's activities.
                        Article 41
The necessary measures for implementing this Regu-                                   Article 46
lation shall be adopted in accordance with the pro-
cedure laid down in Article 39.                               On a proposal from the Commission, the Council
                                                              shall review this Regulation within five years from
                        Article 42                            its entry into force.
 1. Member States shall take the necessary steps to
 ensure that the amounts received from the Fund are                                  Article 47
 clearly identified, in a form consonant with the par-        This Regulation shall enter into force on the day fol-
ticular characteristics of the national budget sys-           lowing its publication in the Official Journal of the
 tems.                                                         European Communities.
 2. At the request of the Commission, Member
 States shall provide it with information on the allo-
 cation of the amounts received from the Fund.
 ---pagebreak--- 31. 12. 83                         Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 360/15
                                                           ANNEX
            LIST OF CATEGORIES OF INFRASTRUCTURE WHICH THE FUND MAY NOT ASSIST
           The Fund shall participate in the financing of infrastructure investments, with the exception of
           those falling into the following categories:
           1. Establishments of general education, except in regions with a severe shortage of such es-
              tablishments, and connected sports and cultural facilities. This definition does not include es-
              tablishments of specialized technical education or vocational training, even at university
              level.
           2. Hospitals and related facilities, except in regions with a severe shortage of such provisions.
           3. Old people's homes and other residential care facilities.
           4. Fire stations, day nurseries, child-minding facilities and similar social welfare facilities not
              directly linked to industrial estate facilities or to the creation or maintenance of employ-
              ment.
           5. Public administration buildings.
           6. Coastal protection and soil conservation infrastructures with a predominantly agricultural
              bias in so far as the projects or infrastructures are financed under the Guidance Section of the
              European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund.
           7. Reafforestation and prevention of forest fires.
           8. That proportion of public expenditure incurred in land acquisition exceeding 15 % of the cost
              of the infrastructure in question.