New EU initiatives and programmes: Structural Funds: Reform

New EU initiatives and programmes:
Structural Funds: Reform. On 18 March 1998 the Commission set out its legislative proposals for future policy on the Structural Funds (as well as the CAP, enlargement and overall financing arrangements for the period 2000-2006) within the Agenda 2000 framework.

The UK Government is not entirely happy with the detail of the proposals, for example, DTI President of the Board of Trade Margaret Beckett said 'we believe that relying too much on unemployment rates to identify those regions which should receive Objective 2 status would be an unreliable and unbalanced way of gauging regional deprivation'.
Source: COM (98) 131 final (18.3.98);Press Release (European Commission), IP/98/258 (18.3.98); Press Notice (DTI), P/98/214 (18.3.98)