Brussels, 02/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 2 October, the European Commission approved the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) of Belgium and its priorities to implement the cohesion policy for 2007-2013. In their NSRF, the Belgian authorities state how they intend to invest the €2.258 billion of European funding, in full respect of the Lisbon strategy for growth and employment. The priorities laid down focused essentially on the economic environment and support for businesses, particularly SMEs, with particular emphasis laid on research and innovation, and the sustainable development of the territories. The objectives of the NSRF will be implemented via: (1) two operational programmes (OPs) under the Convergence Objective for the province of Hainaut (which is the principal beneficiary of the Belgian NSRF, with aid of €638 million), one supported by the ERDF, the other by the ESF; (2) 8 OPs under the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective (3 ERDF and 5 ESF); (3) 7 OPs under the European Territorial Cooperation Objective. For more information, please see: http: //http://www.ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/atlas2007/fiche/be_fr.pdf (gb)