Brussels, 04/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - As forecast on Monday by EU Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hubner, Austria has become the third member states after Malta and Greece to reach agreement with the European Commission on the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) and cohesion priorities for 2007-2013 (see EUROPE 9399/9398). Austria sent in its NSRF electronically to the European Commission on 30 November 2006. Now that negotiations have been successfully concluded on the wider framework document, the list of programmes and the indicative annual allocation from each fund will soon be adopted by the Commission, explains a Commission press release, adding that approval of the NSRF is a legal prerequisite for adoption of the Operational Programmes. The adoption procedure has now been closed and the Commission has published its decision on various aspects of the Austrian NSRF (priorities, indicative annual allocations and the list of Operational Programmes).
Austria's NSRF: 1) describes how the €1461 million allotted to Austria for 2007-2013 will be used to promote growth and employment in the regions; 2) lists the following priorities: promoting regional economies' competitiveness and innovation, making Austrian regions more attractive with increased standards of living and improved adaptability and qualification of the country's workforce. Austria is planning to translate the broad priorities outlined in the NSRF into 11 operational programmes, explains a press release, noting that the poorest region, Burgenland, will receive transitional support from two programmes funded from the ERDF and the ESF, whereas the other regions (Bundeslander) will be aided through individual programmes funded from the ERDF. The horizontal ESF operational programme for promotion of employment will cover the whole Austrian territory except for Burgenland.
Info: http: //ec.europa.en/regional_policy/atlas2007fiche/at_en.pdf (gb)