WRITTEN QUESTION No. 484/98 by Richard HOWITT to the Commission. Transitional arrangements for KONVER areas losing eligibility after 1999
2. 10. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 304/115 In order to promote diversity based on assessment of need by local partnerships within eligible regions, the Commission has ensured that regional SPDs are developed on the basis of genuinely regional plans developed by the partnerships concerned. Each programme is then overseen by its own monitoring committee, which includes local authorities and other relevant economic actors at the regional level, and each monitoring committee has devised its own administrative processes and project selection criteria. In this context, the Commission welcomes the decision of the United Kingdom government to extend membership of the programme monitoring committees to social partners. The Commission attaches great importance to the regional identity of structural funds programmes and their local ownership. Where possible, the Commission encourages a bottom-up approach to the development of solutions to local economic and employment problems and in many instances the development of local strategies, e. g. for business support, is a prerequisite for aid. The production of guidelines for the application of the structural funds is an important tool for ensuring a focus on core European issues while addressing local needs. The Commission does not agree that they should be abandoned. For instance, priorities defined by the European Council in Madrid in November 1995 were subsequently developed into the guidelines which informed the Commissionís general approach to the negotiation of all objective 2 SPDs in 1996-1997. The guidelines were essential in the production of regional frameworks which match local needs to Community priorities, and each of the new programmes in the United Kingdom contains a specific chapter identifying how priorities have been taken into account in the local process. (98/C 304/172) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0484/98 by Richard Howitt (PSE) to the Commission (27 February 1998) Subject: Transitional arrangements for KONVER areas losing eligibility after 1999 Given the fact that fifty per cent of the designated areas for the KONVER Community Initiative Europe-wide fall outside eligible areas under mainstream ERDF programmes, will the Commission consider funding transitional arrangements for such areas which are no longer eligible within the new Structural Fund programmes after 1999? If not, what explanation can the Commission give for treating such areas different from Objective 2 areas which lose eligibility but which are intended to benefit from transitional arrangements? Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (31 March 1998) The Commission guidelines on the Community Konver initiative, published in 1994 (1), permit Member States to propose areas not eligible for support under the Structural Funds › provided that the percentage of such areas does not exceed 50% of the total Community contribution. In terms of the Community contribution, the published list of eligible areas (2) proposes only around 35% of areas not eligible for support under the Structural Funds. Moreover, under the review of the Structural Funds, the Commission envisages permitting a transitional period only for areas which are currently eligible under Objectives 1 and 2 and which would no longer be so during the period 2000-2006. Thus eligibility is a prerequisite for a transitional period, and areas not eligible would not be entitled to such a period. However, areas falling outside Objectives 1 and 2 could be covered by the new Objective 3 measures. The purpose of this Objective is to develop measures to modernise the labour markets in coordination with the multi-annual employment plans and the new chapter on employment in the Treaty of Amsterdam. Priority will also be accorded to measures aimed at adapting and modernising systems of education, training and employment with a view to increasing the Community economyís competitiveness and to providing support for the economic and social changes throughout the EU. (1) OJ C 180, 1. 7. 1994. (2) OJ C 402, 31. 12. 1994