Brussels, 18/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - From 2000 to 2006, 24.2% of Objective 1 aid granted to the least developed regions of the European Union should benefit other Member States, according to a report on the economic impact of Objective 1 aid commissioned by the European Commission. The author of the report, that the Commission has just received, explains that the interconnection of the markets of the Fifteen means that the richest Member States indirectly recover part of the money placed in the common pot through imports that result from the implementation of projects financed with the aid. According to the report, 42.6% of the Objective 1 aid granted to Greece from 2000 to 2006 should benefit other Member States. This is the fate of 35.2% of aid to Portugal, 26.7% of aid to Italy, 18.9% of aid to eastern Germany, 17.4% to the Mezzogiorno, and 14.7% of aid to Spain. To this 24.2% on average must be added 9% which would be of advantage to third countries. For the period 1994-1999, the assessment was 30-40%.
The European Commission considers publishing these figures is a further way to insist on how useful structural funds are. Still according to the report, the impact of Community intervention on GDP growth in 2000 to 2006 would be 3.5% for Portugal, 2.2% for Greece, 1.7% for the Mezzogiorno, 1.6% for eastern Germany and 1.1% for Spain.
The European Commissioner responsible for regional policy, Michel Barnier, presented the results of this study to the other Commissioners Tuesday morning, on the occasion of the "seminar", which lasted a few hours, that the College devoted to the future of the Cohesion policy. This meeting, which took place a few days earlier than scheduled, essentially enabled Commissioner Barnier to brief them on the state of the debate. There was no conclusion at the end of the talks, explained a spokesperson. All agreed to maintain the priority for the poorest regions and to call for greater simplification, but the Commissioners did not really enter into the debate on pursuing Objective 2 aid in other regions.
The Commissioner responsible social affairs, Anna Diamantopoulou spoke in favour of a cohesion policy open to all regions, but with a re-balancing in favour of training and "human capital"
The Commissioner for Agriculture, Franz Fischler called for more money for rural development at the mid-term review of the CAP. For post-2006, he placed emphasis on the fact that all rural regions should be able to benefit from aid.
On Monday, the Council approved an initial report on the Commission's Second Report on Cohesion, presented last January. EUROPE will return to that tomorrow