Brussels, 23/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - At its meeting in Brussels on 22 June, the European Parliament's Regional Development Committee adopted four regulations from the Structural Fund package for 2007-2013, namely 1) a general regulation on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Cohesion Fund; 2) a specific regulation on ERDF; 3) a specific regulation on the Cohesion Fund; and 4) a specific regulation setting up a European Cross-border Cooperation Group. The fifth specific regulation in the package, on the European Social Fund, still needs the go-ahead from the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee.
The next stage is for the regulations to be approved in second reading by the European Parliament's plenary on 4 July. The Commission will be adopting strategic guidelines for 2007-2013 at its College meeting on 12 July 2006. It will then start negotiating strategic national frameworks with the Member States. The European Parliament adopted the five reports in first reading nearly a year ago, on 6 July 2005 (see EUROPE 8986, and EUROPE 8794 and 9744 for details of the regulations). Once the regulations have been endorsed by the European Parliament's plenary in July, it will be possible to start making use of the EUR 307.9 billion budget (35.7% of the EU's total budget) from 1 January 2007 onwards.