Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-24-Speech-2-012"
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"en.20090324.3.2-012"2
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"Madam President, before we open the debate on the report on the implementation of the Structural Funds Regulation 2007-2013, allow me to seize this opportunity to thank the Commission for the concrete communication paper and the country fiches as a solid base on which to work. I would especially like to thank those who worked with me on the report, especially our EPP-ED adviser, Ms Stoian, and our committee administrator, Mr Chopin, who both devoted long hours to this report.
Let me briefly recapitulate on the making of this report, which obtained, with just a few compromises, the full support of the Committee on Regional Development just last month. As you may already know, the aim of this report is to show the way in which the Member States understood and follow the 2006 Community strategic guidelines on cohesion when drawing up their 27 national strategic reference frameworks and 429 operational programmes adapted to meet their specific constraints and requirements.
I have therefore decided to base this report on three main documents: firstly, the communication from the Commission; secondly, the 27 country fiches provided by the Commission and, thirdly, the Council decision of 2006 on Community strategic guidelines on cohesion, which represents an indicative framework for the Member States for the preparation of the national strategic reference frameworks and the operational programmes for the period 2007-2013.
The three leading priorities that were clearly set by the aforementioned Council decision are: firstly, making Europe and its regions more attractive places in which to invest and work; the second priority is to improve knowledge and innovation for growth; and the third priority is to attract more people into employment or entrepreneurial activity in order to create more and better jobs.
Before I share what I have observed while working on this report, it is important to underline that its scope is partly limited by the fact that the operational programmes were only approved in June 2008 and it will take at least a year before any real advances in their implementation can be assessed. Nevertheless, I can already assess that the general priorities have been adhered to by all Member States, with specific particularities imposed by their level of economic and territorial development.
It is also important to note that they might suffer certain changes in the sense of the increasing focus on investments in areas with immediate growth potential and urgency in the context of the European economic recovery plan, the Community response to the global financial crisis, and the current economic slowdown. In other words, it is important to remember that each Member State, and even more so the regions, have diverse needs arising from their geographical location and economic and institutional development. Therefore, the resulting tailor-made national cohesion strategies in the operational programme undoubtedly vary significantly according to these needs.
It is known that Member States were required by the general regulations of the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund to earmark 60% of the total expenditure for the cohesion objective and 75% for the regional competitiveness and employment objective. However, I am pleased to see that the efforts made by the national authorities have ensured that the average allocation of expenditure for achievement of the Lisbon Agenda constitutes 65% – more than the available funds in the convergence regions – and 82% in the regional competitiveness and employment regions, which is also more than initially requested.
I see my time is up. I had much more prepared. I will finish at the end of this debate."@en1
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