Brussels, 17/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - As Commissioner Danuta Hübner indicated at a meeting with journalists last Friday (see EUROPE 9407), Germany's national strategic reference framework (NSRF) was submitted to the Commission on 23 January 2007. The Commissioner has already given her backing to the German framework, highlighting that it was going to devote a total of some €26.3 billion for the period 23007-2013 to fund projects related to Lisbon strategy priorities, and especially in innovation, information technology, transport infrastructure, human resources training and equality of opportunities for the regions. The NSRF notes that of these €26.3 billion, €15.1 billion will be spent in the Objective 1 regions (convergence) of the new EU member states, €0.991 billion in the Lüneburg region (NUTS level II) and €9.3 billion for Objective 2 regions (regional competitiveness).
With regard to money from the Structural Funds for Germany's operational programmes for the period 2007-2013, a table (which does not indicate the amounts for the territorial cooperation section, which are additional) confirms that: - the total amount for “convergence” objective regions is €16.079 billion, €11.361 of which will come from the Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and €4.718 from the European Social Fund (ESF); - the total amount for “regional competitiveness” regions is €9.409 billion, with €4.746 coming from the ERDF and €4.662 from the ESF. The NSRF overall total, then, is €25.488 billion, of which €16.107 billion is from the ERDF and €9.360 from the ESF.
If the procedure follows its normal course, Germany will become the fifth member state, after Malta, Greece, Austria and Denmark, to have agreed its NSRF with the Commission and its priorities for 2007-2013. The full German NSRF and the German priorities are available at http: //http://www.bmwi.de/BMWi/Navigation/Europa/EU-Strukturpolitik/nationaler-strategie-rahmenplan-07-13.html (gb)