Commission unveils pared-down list of regions to get priority aid

Date: 01/07/1999

By Simon Taylor

ACTING Regional Affairs Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies has confirmed that 58 run-down areas will be entitled to priority aid from the EU's pared-down €195-billion pot over the next seven years.

Presenting the caretaker Commission's structural fund allocations for 2000-06, Wulf-Mathies said: "Now it is up to the member states to do their share and prepare their development plans and programmes."

The list of Objective One regions - including five in Germany, 14 in Greece, ten in Spain, six in Italy and four in the UK - is much shorter than its equivalent during the EU's 1993-99 budgeting period.

Many of the areas which have enriched their way out of this priority aid status will now qualify for a new Objective Two, which caters for all regions "undergoing socio-economic change". It will be up to governments to choose which areas should be eligible for this new form of aid, which cannot cover more than 18% of the Union's population.

Wulf-Mathies has, how-ever, laid down national population ceilings above which Objective Two aid will not be available. This will be 10.3 million for Germany, 18.8 million for France and 8.8 million for Spain.

The Commission has earmarked €4.88 billion for the Interreg programme to regenerate border regions hit by the removal of customs frontiers, €700 million for a new scheme to help rundown inner cities, €2.02 billion for the Leader rural development project and €2.85 billion to combat labour market inequalities.

Today's (1 July) announcement lays down the precise aid allocations under a seven-year budget framework agreed at the Berlin summit in March. EU leaders assigned €213 billion to regional aid, of which €195 billion is set aside for structural funds and €18 billion specifically for countries whose wealth per head lags behind the EU average.

Structural Fund allocations for 2000-06.