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EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 3 - Page 10

 

What it all means in

Plain English

2.

Objectives

Objective 1a external to the mind; actually exisitng; dealing with outward things not thoughts or feelings; Gram. constructed as or appropriate to object. 2n. object or purpose aimed at.

It is evident to most people with a basic grasp of European politics that there is money in there for the spending, if only you could get your hands on it. Whether you are a Member State, a region, a school or a disabled theatre group, there will be a fund that could help you to realise your dreams. The Structural Funds are just one set of resources and are set aside for regenerating regions with high unemployment. Britain's falling dole count, however, has recently meant an 'adjustment' in the amount of money available to our poorer or post-industrial regions. Under the current rules you have to meet one of six criteria in order to be allowed to dip into the honey pot. These were called 'objectives' as in Objective 1, Objective 2 etc. Luckily for some but bad news for comprehensibility objectives had appendices, that is bits tacked on. So, for example, places adjacent to areas of high unemployment qualified too.

New proposals

The European Commission wants to simplify things and have just three structural fund objectives. MEPs have suggested new objectives, for example, helping areas with a high number of lone parents without work.
The technical details of the Commission's proposals are as follows:
Objective 1: The purpose of this objective will be to help those regions most in. need, those whose figures for level of development is less than two-thirds the. EU average. These levels will be measured by GDP per head over the last three years.
Objective 2: Support from the EU for the economic and social conversion of. areas facing industrial decline, depopulation and deprivation, even in the wealthier Member States.
Objective 3: The conditions currently applied to the European Social Fund will be re-grouped into this objective, allowing spending on training, education and employment policies.

The Structural Funds as a whole comprise the regional deve1opment fund, the social fund, the agricultural guidance and guarantee fund and the financial instrument for fisheries. Overall the Structural Fund is aimed at closing the gap between the richer and poorer parts of the EU. We'll look at other funds in a future issue.

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