Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-17-Speech-5-045"
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"en.20000317.5.5-045"2
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"Mr President, I should just like to touch on a couple of points that Mr Evans raised.
First of all, I acknowledge that there is difficulty in the Midlands with the Rover Group. I would not like to make political capital out of it. There are too many jobs at stake. Secondly, he also mentioned their by-election. I congratulate his party in securing a victory in this by-election. But, unlike him, I have been in Ayr for the last three weeks, on the doorstep. I can tell you that additionality was never raised once.
I turn to the question at hand. I thank the Nationalists for having raised this. It is right that we have a proper discussion on the whole question of the Structural Funds. But I suspect there is a deeper plot here. What are they actually trying to achieve? I listened to Ms Evans. Basically, what I took from her contribution is that she wants to redefine the Structural Funds regulations. I would remind people in this Parliament that it was not so long ago that this Parliament passed, by the assent procedure, the rules and regulations governing the Structural Funds, including Article 11, which defines additionality.
Is it therefore Parliament's role now to change that? We should not change that. The role of this Parliament is to ensure that the rules are complied with. That is what we should concentrate on.
I know that Ms Evans, along with one of her colleagues, Dafydd Wigley and a member of the Scottish Nationalist Party, Mr Wilson, went to meet Commissioner Barnier. I should like to read out the statement made by Commissioner Barnier after that meeting:
“I know that there has been a great deal of debate in Scotland and Wales recently about European regional funding. But I have the impression that this has sometimes confused two separate issues – additionality and cofinancing. I am not surprised that there is a certain amount of confusion among the Nationalists on this. Additionality, whether or not EU funds are providing additional impact, compared to what would otherwise have happened, can be used as
of the selection criteria by the local programme planners before they decide to approve aid to individual projects. The Commission, on the other hand, is obliged by the rules to make a global assessment of additionality for the UK as a whole, with the specific aim of ensuring that the European financial aid is additional to, and not a substitute for, national finance. We have always been satisfied in the past that the national requirements have been met”."@en1
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