Brussels, 26/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - During his visit to Spain on Thursday and Friday, Regional Policy Commissioner Michel Barnier will point out to Spanish authorities that, while the European Commission shares their concern for rethinking Community aid to the regions of the Fifteen after enlargement, it rejects the idea of examining this question in the context of accession negotiations. Membership negotiations, including on the regional policy chapter, concern the acquis to which candidate countries will be subject once they join the EU, while discussions held by Commissioner Barnier on future regional policy will, in the medium and long term, cover the future of this policy and aid to be implemented after 2006, it is explained by a Commission spokesman, who added that these two issues cannot be linked.
The Commissioner will thus respond to the memorandum on regional and enlargement policy sent by the Spanish government to the Commission three days before Mr Barnier's visit (see EUROPE of 23/24 April, p.10). In this three-page text, Spain requests that the question of maintaining aid to the less developed regions of the Fifteen after 2006 be settled "in the context of accession negotiations". Spain draws the Commission's attention to the risk that some regions of the Fifteen will lose their eligibility to the EU Structural Funds after enlargement because, simply due to the "statistical" effect caused by accession of countries that are less wealthy, their GDP per capita would exceed 75% of the Community average - the threshold used for now for determining eligibility. The Commission recalls that it had devoted a large part of its Second Report on Economic and Social Cohesion, adopted end January (see EUROPE of 1 February, pages 9 and 10) to this question, which is "one of the key issues" for the elaboration of regional policy after enlargement. The Commission had proposed several alternatives for calculating the threshold of eligibility. The adoption of the next programme under the Structural Funds is foreseen for 2006 or 2007.
The Spanish memorandum was tackled by the Permanent Representatives of the Fifteen, on Wednesday, and could be included on the agenda of the General Affairs Council on 14 May. On Wednesday, the countries of southern Europe are said to have supported the Spanish position, while other countries, on the other hand, took the floor to stress that these are two separate matters that should remain separate.