Brussels, 30/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the European Commission published guidelines on how the Structural Funds can be used to help develop electronic communications. The document has been drawn up half way through the current Structural Funds programming period (2000-2006) and is aimed at project managers and national and regional administrations responsible for selecting new projects. The Structural Funds may be used to establish infrastructure and also to develop demand (by encouraging the public and private sectors to demand high speed internet access in order to form a critical mass) and content (e-government, for example).
The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) cannot be used for isolated projects, but only for the strategic development of regions. ERDF should in theory only be sued for infrastructure and equipment accessible to all operators and service suppliers.
The Commission notes that the Structural Funds must always be used in accordance with state aid rules and be granted through a call for tender.
The Structural Funds have to be matched by national or regional funding and may not provide more than 40% of total funding for Objective 1 regions (this may be increased to 50% for countries benefiting from the Cohesion Fund) and 25% in Objective 2 regions. This may be increased by no more than 10% in either region for non-direct funding.
The Commission points out that the information society is a priority for the Structural Funds for 2000-2006.
It stresses in its document that investment under the Structural Funds can move beyond commercial considerations to allow less developed regions to come up to speed with regards the information society by speeding up the deployment of broad band and ensuring greater territorial cohesion.