Brussels, 09/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - Danuta Hübner has signed the National Strategic Reference Frameworks (NSRF) and priorities that the European Commission, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Cyprus worked out for 2007-13. The NSRFs for Malta, Greece, Austria, Lithuania and Denmark have already been approved by the Commission. The number of states that have benefited from such an approval for their NSRF (for which the total amount for investing in the regions and cities of Europe stands at around €160bn) is ten. The adopted programmes correspond to approximately 46% of the total amount allocated for all 27 EU member states (€347 billion).
The official programme signing ceremony took place at the conference organised by the German presidency, marking the adoption of a certain number of Cohesion Policy programmes for the 2007-2013 period under the title "Strong Regions - Building Bridges for Europe". The conference was organised by the German presidency of the EU on 9 May in Hof, Bavaria. The event attracted 300 regional policy experts from several EU member states including members of the German and European Parliament, Poland's Regional Development Minister Grazyna Gesicka, Czech counterpart Jiri Cunek and German Minister-Presidents Edmund Stoiber and Georg Milbradt, as well as ministers and state secretaries for Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Spain, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (EUROPE 9419). At the conference experts and the European Commission provided information about the successes that had been accomplished and future EU structural policy. The competent authorities then signed the National Strategic Reference Frameworks (NSRF) for Germany, as well as the Operational Programmes (OP) for Bavaria, Saxony, Lower Saxony, Bremen. Those for 7 Austrian regions were also signed (Burgenland, Kärten, Niederösterreich, Salzburg, Steiermark, Tirol, Oberösterreich). Procedures for the remaining 17 member states will be finished soon. European Commissioner for Regional Policy Danuta Hübner explained that the fact that the regions of these ten member states can now use the funds made available to them by the EU for investing in specifically defined sectors was “great news for our regions, great news for Europe". The commissioner congratulated the Austrian regions for becoming the first to have operational programmes approved by the Commission and announced that the operational programmes for Bavaria, Saxony, Lower Saxony and Bremen have been finalised. German Minister for Economy and Technology Michael Glos, echoed these sentiments and declared: “This event sends a strong signal and shows that we care about the economic development of Europe's regions”. He affirmed: “For the first time, all 27 member states participate fully in the Union's Cohesion Policy in order to strengthen our regions' competitiveness. In this sense, we will be able to build bridges within Europe and beyond."
For the NSRF and priorities for Malta, Greece, Austria, Lithuania and Denmark see EUROPE 9333, 9398, 9401, 9415 and 9407 respectively. Romania submitted its NSRF to the Commission at the end of February 2007 (EUROPE 9375) and Portugal did so at the end of January (EUROPE 9348).
Consult the following link for contents of the NSRF freshly signed on 9 May by Ms Hübner (for details on each country: http: //ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/atlas2007/fiche):
1) Germany: the NSRF negotiated over recent months (EUROPE 9408) provides a general overview of the way in which Germany will use Community resources of approximately €26.3 billion: €16.1 billion of this will be distributed to regions under the convergence objective, €9.4 billion will be distributed to regions under the regional competitiveness and employment objective, and €0.8 billion under the European territorial cooperation objective. On average, the German authorities will contribute 25% to the EU funding under the convergence objective and 50% to the amount of the competitiveness and employment objective as their national co-financing. The EU funding will be invested in four strategic objectives: (1.) Innovation and building up of the knowledge-based society, and strengthening of the competitiveness of the economy; (2.) Increase of the attractiveness of the regions for investors and inhabitants by sustainable regional development; (3.) More and better jobs; (4.) Development of regions to promote opportunities and reduce differences (territorial priority/objective). In addition to the strategic objectives, there are the following three horizontal objectives: sustainable urban development, equal opportunities and environment.
2) Poland: the biggest beneficiary of the Cohesion Policy for 2007-13, Poland has been allocated approximately €67.3 billion: €66.6 billion under the convergence objective (of which €22.2 billion come from the Cohesion Fund) and €731 million under the European territorial cooperation objective.
Poland's contribution (including private sources) to complement the EU investments would reach €18.3 billion, bringing the total amount at the disposal for cohesion policy activities in Poland to approximately €85.6 billion over a 7-year period. The NSRF was approved by the Commission on 7 May. The Polish authorities want to above all invest in growth and job creation for their regions in an effort to reduce the gap between GDP/per capita in Poland and EU27 GDP. European funds will be invested in the following 6 horizontal specific objectives: (1.) Improved functioning standards of the public administration and development of partnership mechanisms; (2.) Improved quality of human capital and enhancement of social cohesion; (3.) Development and modernisation of technical and social infrastructure of fundamental importance for growth of competitiveness in Poland; (4.) Improvement of competitiveness and innovativeness of enterprises, including specifically the production sector with high added value and development of the services sector; (5.) Increased competitiveness of Polish regions and counterbalancing their social, economic and spatial marginalisation and (6.) Balance between development opportunities and support for structural changes in rural areas.
3) Spain: a total of €35 217 million has been allocated to Spain: €26 180 million under the convergence objective (of which €3 543 million from the Cohesion Fund), €8 477 million under the regional competitiveness and employment objective and €559 million under the European territorial cooperation objective. On average, the Spanish authorities will contribute 25% to the EU funding under the convergence objective and 50% to the amount of the competitiveness and employment objective as their national co-financing. The EU funding will be invested in three strategic objectives: (1.) Making Spain a more attractive place to invest and work in; (2.) Improving knowledge and innovation to strengthen growth; and (3.) More and better jobs. The Spanish NSRF intends to translate these objectives into themes aimed at boosting the knowledge economy, fostering sustainable environment and transport, encouraging lifelong learning and business creation, investing in urban development etc.
4) Cyprus has been allocated approximately €640 million, of which €213 million is under the Cohesion Fund , €399 million under the regional competitiveness and employment objective (phasing in), and €28 million under the European territorial cooperation objective. Together with Cyprus' contribution to complement the EU funds, the total investment should reach €720 million, calculated on the basis of an annual average of €103 million. The funds will be invested in five thematic priorities: (1.) Strengthening of the productive base of the economy and support to enterprises; (2.) Knowledge society and promotion of RTD and innovation; (3.) Human resources, employment and social cohesion; (4.) Environment, transport and energy infrastructures and (5.) Development of sustainable communities.
5) Hungary: Hungary has been allocated an amount of €25.3 billion: of which €22.9 billion is for regions under the convergence objective (of which €8.6 billion come from the Cohesion Fund), and €386 million under the European territorial cooperation objective. The Hungarian contribution will reach an amount of €4.4 billion. The main objective of the Hungarian authorities is to invest in employment and sustain long-term growth. Sustained growth is to be achieved through the specific objectives of: (1.) Improving competitiveness including strengthening the knowledge economy and (2.) Developing the business environment.
All member states must take account of the Community guidelines for 2007-2013 which place particular emphasis on innovation, research and technological development, the information society, environmental protection, renewable energy sources and creating more and better jobs. The NSRF must also tie in closely with member states' national reform programmes which set out the measures they will implement to deliver the Lisbon jobs and growth strategy.