Brussels, 02/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the Commission adopted its first interim report for the action plan in regions bordering accession candidate countries. This report shows that the implementation of the action plan adopted by the Commission on 25 July 2001 an which puts forward measures for strengthening economic competitiveness in border regions during EU enlargement is progressing satisfactorily. The plan involves 23 regions in Austria, Finland, Greece and Italy. The report focuses on the following themes:
Promotion of SMEs: Commission co-finances with EUR 10 million a pilot project developed by the Chambers of Commerce in the EU regions that are involved. The goal is to help SMEs identify the risks and challenges resulting from enlargement and define new trade strategies and activities, as well as supporting co-operation through the borders of the future Member States.
Network set-up: the Commission is funding, to the tune of EUR 20 million, three INTERREG III C (North, South, East) programmes, consisting of projects from the network and actions aimed at facilitating co-operation between border regions.
Transport/SME: Commission will be funding thirteen INTERREG (A) programmes to the tune of EUR 30 million in regions bordering candidate countries, as well as the INTERREG (B) programme for the Baltic regions. Priority is on transport systems, support for SMEs particularly affected by enlargement and training actions, including intercultural cooperation.
Improvement of coordination between Phare (cross-border cooperation) and INTERREG. The Commission has modified the regulation involving Phare-CBC for adapting it better to the spirit of the INTERREG initiative. It has also amended the INTERREG directives to include Vienna in the INTERREG III programmes with Hungary and the Czech Republic.
In its report, the Commission stresses that it will also continue to assist the border regions that have been particularly affected by enlargement. The activities which follow, are already ongoing or planned to begin in 2003: a) continuation of measures for supporting SMEs, particularly in the most affected economic sectors (promotion of co-operation of technical know-how transfers between companies; b) consolidation of intervention actions for workers (a device and information on social legislation and the right to work on both sides of the border, information on the acquis concerning free movements of persons at the time of accession); continuation of measures for increasing mobility and moving of public administrations at both regional and local levels, as well as initiatives in the social, cultural and education sectors.