Brussels, 15/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany, has invested nearly 85% of its Cohesion Policy funding. Thanks to this aid, it is particularly well placed to respond successfully to today's challenges of growth, jobs and innovation. On Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 January, Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner visited Rhineland-Palatinate and was openly pleased with this situation. She stressed that “the European Commission also shares the region's commitment to efficiency and simplification: your region's motto puts it perfectly - "Wir machen's einfach" (“Let's simply do it.”) Rhineland-Palatinate will receive a total of €577 million in support from the European Union in 2007-2013: this includes €218 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), €114 million from the European Social Fund (ESF), and €245 million from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).
During her meeting with Minister-President Kurt Beck and other Members of the Land government, Danuta Hübner announced that Rhineland-Palatinate will receive additional advance payments of €8.3 million in 2009 to speed up project implementation, in addition to the €16.6 million in pre-financing that it received in 2007-08. Focusing this investment on business competitiveness, infrastructure, energy, research and innovation is central for EU regional policy to address the global economic slowdown. In assigning 84% of its EU support for these priorities, Rhineland-Palatinate is ahead of other German Länder and well above the European average (EU regions earmark on average 65% of their Cohesion policy allocations on these key priorities).
Danuta Hübner also visited Kaiserslautern, and Wipotec, an SME specialising in high precision weighing technologies for the pharmaceutical industry and which received €2 million from the ERDF. The commissioner also visited the two research institutes in Fraunhofer: the Institute for Industrial Mathematics (ITWM) and the Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE) which received €24 million.
In a press release, the Commission indicated that the programme for Rhineland-Palatinate aims to create 5000 jobs by 2013, targeting support on business start-ups, developing innovation capacity in enterprises and knowledge, and facilitating technology transfer. The authorities plan to support 12 clusters which will develop cooperation between universities, research institutes and enterprises. As a border region, Rhineland-Palatinate is also actively involved in cross-border programmes supported by the European Union, including “Upper-Rhine” (with France and Switzerland), “Grande Région” (with Belgium, France and Luxembourg) and “Euregio Maas-Rhein” (with Belgium and Netherlands). (G.B./transl.rh)