Brussels, 21/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the European Commission approved the regional development programme for West Berlin for 2000-2006. The Community contribution to the programme will amount to some 384 million (mio) euro. Approximately 385 mio euro will be provided by German public funding and 410 mio by the private sector, taking the global envelope to 1.179 billion euro. One of the main aims of the programme is to create or maintain 15,000 jobs.
Adopted under "Objective 2" (support for the economic and social re-conversion of areas with structural difficulties), the programme concerns the part of the city that, ten years after reunification, still feels the after-effects of its former division: industrial job losses and an increased unemployment rates (17.3% in 1997), insufficient competitiveness an the characteristics of a large metropolis which is still insufficiently developed. To tackle these weaknesses, three priority areas of action have been identified: - competitiveness of enterprises, especially SMEs (Community contribution (cc: 202.165 mio); - improvement of infrastructures, especially linked to innovation and research (cc: 133.076 mio); protection and improvement of the environment (cc: 41.037 mio). 8.171 mio euro will be allocated to technical assistance in implementing the programme.
The programme places emphasis on Berlin's potential strong points, i.e. research and development,, especially in the field of bio-technologies, taking account of sustainable development, gender equality and the development of the information society are all taken into account. The programme will be financed to the tune of 63.5% by Erdf and 36.5% by Esf. Michel Barnier, European Commissioner responsible for regional policy, declared that it was an EU contribution to transforming Berlin, which "constitutes an integral part of the affirmation o the role of Berlin as the capital of a reunified Germany, and its role as a bridge between the east and the west of the continent from the point of view of future enlargements".