91997E4203

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4203/97 by José García-Margallo y Marfil (PPE) to the Commission (21 January 1998)

Subject: Agenda 2000 and Objective 1: investment 1993-1997

At the end of November the Director-General of Regional Policy and Cohesion, Eneko Landäburu, suggested, in the presence of press representatives, that 11 European regions, including Valencia (Spain), were to lose their Objective 1 status under the terms of the Commission proposals to reduce the Structural Funds before the accession of new Member States.

Mr Landäburu's calculations were based on the provisional data currently available to the Commission. However, in the specific case of Valencia, official Eurostat statistics show that, in 1993, the Valencia Autonomous Community's GDP was 74.9% of the European average and that, in 1994, the figure was even lower (73.6%). The threshold for Objective 1 eligibility is 75%, hence there are no grounds for supposing that Valencia is going to fail the eligibility test in the near future.

Should the average income of the various regions during the 1993-1997 period be taken as the criterion for calculating GDP, it is important that the macro-economic data for each region should be known for all of the years concerned.

In 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997, how much was invested in the following regions under ERDF Objective 1:

- Anatolia, Macedonia, Thessaly, Crete, Pelopennese, Central Greece, Ipiros, Attica, Ionian Islands, Aegean, Sterea (Greece)

- Hainaut (Belgium)

- Thuringia, Brandenburg, East Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Munster (Germany)

- Galicia, Extremadura, Castilla la Mancha, Castilla y Leon, Ceuta and Melilla, Valencia Autonomous Community, Asturias, Andalusia, Canary Islands, Murcia (Spain)

- Valenciennes, Avesnes, Douai, Overseas Departments (France)

- Ulster, Connaught, Leinster (Ireland)

- Molise, Apulia, Sicily, Basilicata, Sardinia, Calabria, Campania (Italy)

- Flevoland (Netherlands)

- Burgerland (Austria)

- Northern Region, Alentejo, Algarve, Lisbon, Tagus Valley, Central Region (Portugal)

- Western Isles, Highlands, Merseyside, Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-4202/97 and E-4203/97 given by Mrs Wulf-Mathies on behalf of the Commission (26 February 1998)

Because of the length of the answer, which includes a number of tables, the Commission is sending it direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat.