Brussels, 16/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - Denmark is the fourth member state of the EU, after Malta, Greece and Austria, to have established its National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) and its priorities in terms of cohesion for the period 2007-2013 (see EUROPE 9401). In its NSRF, Denmark describes how it intends to invest the €510 million it is to receive from the European funds over the next seven years to increase growth and create more jobs in its regions. The negotiations on this framework having been successfully concluded, the Commission is soon to adopt the operational programmes, the negotiations for which are currently being finalised.
Denmark's main objective, as indicated in its NSRF, is to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy of the world by 2015. In order to achieve this, Denmark's global objectives are to create a high-quality education system, a leading knowledge society, an innovative society and a leading entrepreneurial society. Denmark also intends to transform these objectives into two operational programmes: the first on “Innovation and Knowledge”, will receive financial resources from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the second, on “More and Better Jobs”, will receive money from the European Social Fund (ESF).
The fifth NSRF which is very soon to be approved is that of Germany. This was announced to the press early in April by Danuta Hübner (see EUROPE 9399). At a meeting with a small group of journalists in Brussels on Friday 13 April, the Commission also confirmed that the German NSRF had reached the Commission, but that there were still a number of details requiring clarification. Once it gets the go-ahead from the German authorities, which is likely to be in the very near future, the NSRF will be published. (gb)