Funds support projects ranging from fruit trees to fibre-optics

Date: 23/11/1995

QUITE apart from several hundred thousand jobs either created or saved, money paid out under Objective 1 of the structural funds between 1989 and 1993 aided projects ranging from the laying of fibre-optic cables to the digging up of unwanted fruit trees.

Data on the impact of Objective 1 measures shows over 797,000 jobs depended on the Community Support Frameworks in seven of the member states which received EU funding.

Although these were not all new jobs, almost half were solely dependent on EU grants. Research also suggested it was possible to quantify the “implicit cost per job” at just over 23,000 ecu in 1993.

Basic infrastructure projects supported by EU money included the construction in Greece of new hospitals and the completion of 280,000 new telephone connections.

Spain benefited from 3,100 kilometres of new roads and motorways, and 68 new water barrages and reservoirs. Portugal was able to construct its Odeleite dam and the UK to carry out the first phase of the Northern Ireland to Scotland gas interconnector.

Among measures aiming to provide direct support for economic activity, agricultural advisers were sent to the French territory of Réunion and business centres were set up in Italy.

Considerable assistance was given to projects to stimulate tourism throughout the Union and education also benefited, notably in Portugal, where 540 schools were built or upgraded and 50,000 new student places were created at universities and polytechnics.