The current European Structural Funds Programming runs from 2007-13. And the UK will continue to receive significant European Funding with some € 9.4bn of funding anticipated, of which € 6.2bn will be available for the Competitiveness and Employment Objective.
More information on the national picture
New Programmes
The European Commission proposed the following new programmes:
- 'Convergence' Programme equivalent to Objective 1 (regions under 75 per cent of European Union average Gross Domestic Product)
- 'Competitiveness and Employment' Programme equivalent to Objectives 2 and 3 (criteria to be determined by the member states)
- 'Co-operation' Programme which will cover the old Interreg IIIA, IIIB, IIIC, Interact, Urbact and Espon
The majority of the funding received by the UK will be through a new European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and a new European Social Fund (ESF). The allocation for the East Midlands is 516.5 million euros made up of an ERDF programme worth 268.5 million euros and an ESF programme worth 248 million euros. Further information on the development of both these new programmes can be found by following the links to the left of the page.
It is important to note that the project activity funded by the current 2000-06 programmes will continue until 2008. There will be some overlap between the programmes in 2007 and 2008 while the current programmes run down and the new programmes start up.
Lisbon and Gothenburg Agendas
European Cohesion and Structural Fund policy in the future will be driven by the Lisbon (competitiveness) and Gothenburg (sustainability) Agendas, where the EU has set the goal of becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world.
Any regional or sub-regional programme will need to clearly demonstrate how it contributes towards this aim. It will mean increased emphasis on competitiveness, innovation and the knowledge economy.
For a more in-depth introduction to European Funding for 2007-2013, see New Funds, Better Rules: A Beginners Guide from the EU Bookshop website.
New ESF 2007-2013 Co-Financing Organisations
ESFD has confirmed full CFO status for three organisations in the East Midlands, through whom all ESF 2007-2013 will be delivered. These are the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and a Local Authority Consortium. Plaques commemorating this fact were presented at the end of the first ESF Regional Monitoring Committee meeting, held at GOEM on 23 October 2007. Congratulations to all of them
