WRITTEN QUESTION No. 476/98 by Richard HOWITT to the Commission. Consultation with local and regional partners in east and south-east England regarding structural fund reform
9. 10. 98 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 310/71 (98/C 310/92) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0472/98 by Richard Howitt (PSE) to the Commission (27 February 1998) Subject: Negotiating period for SPDs in the new structural fund programming period 1999-2006 Does the Commission accept that an unacceptable cause of delayed starts for structural fund programmes during 1994-99 was the lengthy period of negotiations under some programmes and with some Member States for approval of SPDs? Will the Commission provide a league table of the average time in respect of each Member State during the programming periods between the Commissionís publication of its draft SPD and final agreement with the Member States concerned? What measures does the Commission propose to tackle this problem in the new period 1999-2006? Could this include a target date for completion with a fixed mechanism for arbitration if agreement is not reached in that period? Answer given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (6 April 1998) The considerable volume of financial resources involved and the large number of draft programming documents - some, in the Commissionís view, of insufficient quality › meant that extra time was needed to meet the quality criteria set out in the regulations, especially those requiring precise quantification of objectives, prior appraisal of the expected impact, environmental information and compliance with the principle of additionality. Since the single programming documents differ in their scope and intentions, the Commission does not consider it appropriate to publish a áleague tableí by Member State comparing the times taken to reach final approval. For the next programming period the Commission will do everything it can to ensure that work on the new programmes starts as soon as possible and is conducted expeditiously. However, it is the legislatorís decision on the amounts of funding available which will determine the content of the programming documents to be drawn up by the Member States and the date from which their preparation can begin. Experience of previous programming periods shows that agreement between Commission and Member States within the partnership is consistently achieved despite the sometimes insufficient quality of the original submissions. A situation of fundamental and irreconciliable disagreement on development priorities has not yet been encountered. Because it is essential to start a programming period with sound and well-balanced programming documents which will ensure that Community resources are used effectively and efficiently, it is in the interests of both Commission and Member States to devote the necessary time and effort to ensuring that this is the case. The Commission does not therefore feel that it would be helpful to impose a deadline on their preparation and approval. (98/C 310/93) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0476/98 by Richard Howitt (PSE) to the Commission (27 February 1998) Subject: Consultation with local and regional partners in east and south-east England regarding structural fund reform Could the Commission list the contacts it has made with and the representations it has received from local and regional agencies and social partners regarding reform of the structural funds from eastern and south-eastern regions of England (outside London), since and at the time of the Cohesion Forum in April 1997? What further consultations does the Commission plan in this respect?