Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-12-14-Speech-4-110"
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"en.20001214.2.4-110"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in order to bolster the competitiveness of Europe in the world economy, the Union supports the transition of businesses and regional authorities to operational methods based on knowledge and technological innovation. The immensity of this task must not be underestimated, since the less prosperous regions are already lagging far behind in innovation, research and development in the various fields of new technology.
This very technology, on the other hand, presents them with a means of making up the leeway, provided that the economic players in the regions are capable of using innovative measures to grasp the opportunities available to them. The fact is that the technological gap between prosperous and backward regions is considerably greater than the difference between their respective Gross Domestic Products. Unfortunately, as in the last planning period, expectations will far exceed the available funding framework of EUR 400 million. Without adequate funding, these measures simply cannot achieve the desired results.
For that reason, the allocation must not, on any account, be reduced further still. The innovative measures would then generate more frustration than enthusiasm. We should spell that out very clearly. The main aspects of the Markov report, which analyses the situation properly and arrives at the right conclusions, can be commended to the House. It is a good report, based on a good paper from the Commission. On one point, however, I tend to support the line taken by the Commission. I cannot endorse the rapporteur's expression of regret that the Commission has opted against a project-based approach and in favour of a programme-based approach, to be implemented by the national and regional authorities.
On the contrary, I see this as an opportunity to shift a greater share of responsibility to the local level and to allow project operators more latitude. Contrary to what the report concludes, I do not believe that this would automatically result in a loss of any European added value. With these guidelines, an experimental laboratory, as Commissioner Barnier put it, really can be developed, enabling the regions to test new ideas and to convert the most successful of these into standard practices."@en1
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