Tag: cohesion fund

Romanian centre-right MEP Petru Constantin Luhan argues that cohesion funds, distributed on the basis of a region's lower GDP per head, should continue to be used to promote solidarity and competitiveness within the EU.

The European Commission wants to subsidise regions like eastern Germany, which are less prosperous than average, through a new category of funding. German MEP Markus Pieper (European People's Party), MEP and vice-chair of the European Parliament's regional policy committee, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview why he is not convinced by the idea.

In the first of our 'project of the month' stories examining regional successes in the EU 27, EurActiv puts the spotlight on the Leitrim Design House, which with the help of EU cohesion funding is creating a sustainable creative arts and crafts sector in the west of Ireland.

Member-state governments are re-focusing the EU's cohesion policy to boost workers' qualifications, education and employability, the Commission said at the conclusion of negotiations on funds allocated for the 2007-2013 period.

22 billion euros worth of EU structural and cohesion funds are set to be spent in support of ‘ill-conceived’ projects in central and eastern Europe, NGOs warn.  

The EU's enlargement on 1 May 2004 has exacerbated economic and social disparities across the EU. Recipients of Structural and Cohesion Funds such as Ireland and Spain are now being called on to contribute to the development of their new partners. In the 2007-2013 financial perspectives, cohesion policy amounts to 35.7% of the total EU budget (€308 billion), 62% of which should finance projects linked to the Lisbon agenda for growth and employment.

Switzerland has earmarked 640 million euros to be paid out over the next five years as a contribution to the EU's cohesion fund for the new member states.

The Commission has concluded its negotiations on the strategy for the implementation of structural funds in the ten new Member States for the period 2004 to 2006.

The EU should replace its inefficient structural policy with a new cohesion policy focusing on transnational measures with a clear European value added, says new report.