Brussels, 28/08/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 27 August the European Commission approved Slovenia's Operational programme? "Strengthening Regional Development Potentials 2007-2013" (OP SRDP).
This programme sets out Community support for Slovenia within the framework of the "Convergence" objective. The total budget of the operational programme is EUR 2.01 billion and the Community assistance through the ERDF amounts to EUR 1.71 billion (approximately 40% of the total EU money invested in Slovenia under Cohesion policy 2007-2013).
The Commission said that the Slovene National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) and the Operational Programmes are in line with the relevant recommendations regarding Cohesion Policy and the Community spending targets for the Lisbon Strategy. The main goal of the Operational Programme "Strengthening Regional Development Potentials" (OP SRDP) is to attain the core objectives defined in the NSRF, namely fostering the country's competitiveness while ensuring a balanced regional development in the entire country. Although it is one of the new Member States, Slovenia took a progressive position regarding the Lisbon targets. The OP SRDP aims to enhance competitiveness, foster entrepreneurship, innovation and technology development, and facilitate job creation, including in the tourism sector while taking into account environmental and social concerns. More than 36% of the financial resources for the operational programme are allocated to activities directly linked to research, innovation and technology development. In total almost 65% of the ERDF financial resources available for this OP (i.e. more than EUR 1.10 billion out of EUR 1.71 billion) are earmarked for goals directly related to the Lisbon agenda.
The Commission believes that the operational programme will enhance the competitiveness of the country by directly creating 11 500 new jobs, 2 100 ha of new business zones, 23 technological centres and centres of excellence, 150 extra innovations and patents per year, 700 new research man-years including 500 in the business sector, 800 projects for small and medium enterprises, an increase of the population served by broadband access from 94% to 100%, increased tourist accommodation capacities of 5 000 beds and an increase in tourist overnight stays from 7.6 to 8.4 million. The operational programme is divided into 5 priority axes: 3 focusing on competitiveness, research excellence, economic-development infrastructure and integration of natural and cultural potentials; one on the development of regions and the last on technical assistance. Approximately 62% of the OP SRDP assets are allocated to competitiveness and integration measures while roughly 36% of funds go to development of regions with 2% for technical assistance.