Catalonia is one of the most cosmopolitan places in Spain, in part the result of its long tradition of international commerce. In recent times its rise to become Spain’s top tourist destination has added to its international character. The tourists may only stay for a week or two, attracted to the Mediterranean pleasures of the Costa Brava, but they leave a flavour. Away from the beaches, there is a thriving industrial sector. The stock exchange in its capital Barcelona is the second most important in the country after Madrid’s. But Catalonia’s 7m or so people are aware that nothing stands still in Europe. Characteristically, they are now facing up to the realities of changes in the Union’s structural funds.
The European Union’s funds in support of its cohesion policy are now being funnelled primarily to member states that have joined since January 2004 – with much lower per capita GDPs than the EU average. Resources for the whole of Spain are being significantly cut back. Its economy has had a positive trend in recent years.
The resources from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) earmarked for Catalonia are estimated to be around 40% lower than for 2000-06. This cutback is even more pronounced if we take into account other resources that Catalonia used to receive from the cohesion funds.
The resources for Catalonia for 2007-13 are primarily to support the EU objectives of Regional Competitiveness and Employment, to which both the ERDF and the FSE contribute, and Territorial Cooperation, to which only the ERDF contributes. Catalonia may also receive resources from the cohesion fund for other activities, although at levels much lower than in 2000-06.
All the operational programmes (OPs) will be “mono-funds”; that is, there will be specific ERDF and ESF programmes. The OPs from which Catalonia will receive funds are the following:
|
|
Catalonia’s ERDF OP for 2007-13 was formally submitted to the European Commission on March 2, 2007. The Commission deemed it “admissible” on March 9, 2007, meaning that it contains all the elements required by Community norms, and it was approved in December 2007.
Public expenditures on this programme total €1,398.23m. The ERDF subsidy assigned is €679.07m, to be distributed as follows: 51.6% for actions spearheaded by the Generalitat de Catalunya; 24.5% for actions by local entities; and the remaining 23.9% for actions by the Spanish public administration.
The actions planned within the OP are mainly aimed at achieving the Lisbon objectives, bearing in mind that EU regulations state that at least 75% of the expenditure in the Competitiveness and Employment Objective must be addressed to them..
Thus, axis 1, Knowledge Economy and Innovation and Business Development will take up more than half of the resources of the OP (53.11%). Within this axis, the main areas to be promoted are: technological excellence; support for R&D centres; the transfer of knowledge and technology; improved access to financing for business development; and promoting the information society and the use of information and technology (ICT). The next axis, number 4, covering Sustainable Local and Urban Development, accounts for 20.9% of the resources. Axis 3, Energy Resources and Access to Transport Services, and axis 2, Environment and Risk Prevention, are earmarked for 16.74% and 8.36% of the resources, respectively. The last in line, axis 5, Technical Assistance, has been allocated 0.89% of the resources.
Catalonia’s ESF OP for 2007--13, submitted in March 2007 was also approved by the end of 2007. The ESF subsidy assigned to this programme totals €284m, with total financing planned at €568m. The national counterpart is primarily the Generalitat de Catalunya. Its chief goal is to rectify weaknesses in the labour market in Catalonia, although it also includes innovative and experimental activities.
Axis 2, Fostering Employability, Social Inclusion and Equality between Women and Men, allocated 51.9% of the resources, is the main axis in this OP. Axis 1, Fostering Entrepreneurialism and Improving the Adaptability of Workers, Companies and Entrepreneurs, garners 24.6% and includes activities related to outsourcing and promoting emerging sectors. Axis 3, Increasing and Improving Human Capital, with 13.2% of the resources, includes actions to improve young people’s professional qualifications and their preparation for the job market. Axis 4, Promoting Transnational and Inter-Regional Cooperation, will receive 7% and axis 5, Technical Assistance, 3.2% of the resources.
The cohesion fund, 2007-13
The resources approved for Spain for the cohesion fund total €3,543m (in current terms). The state submitted a pluri-regional programme for transport and the environment, where no specific allocation of resources was planned by the administrations of the autonomous regions in the Competitiveness objective. A reserve of €325m was made available to municipalities with over 200,000 inhabitants in the Regional Competitiveness and Employment regions, including Catalonia, in order to finance environmental projects.
The environment ministry will manage a project aimed at eliminating chemical waste in the Flix reservoir (first phase), with a subvention estimated at around €110m. Investments are also expected in the water sector in Catalonia amounting to €38.5m.
This is a summary of our autonomous community’s planned participation in the 2007-13 cohesion policy.
Still, despite the growth of the Catalan economy the region has several significant shortcomings. There are hopes that this situation can be remedied using resources allocated in the period 2007-13, which will mainly contribute to achieving the Lisbon objectives, especially in research, development and innovation (RDI).
The European Commission hopes that the programming of the European funds will contribute to a more intense development of the regions, adding to their value. Regions such as Catalonia, which belong to the Competitiveness and Employment group, are the ones expected to help the EU as a whole improve its ranking, internationally, in RDI and the employment rate and other areas.
With one of the largest allocations of resources within the Competitiveness and Employment objective for the next seven years Catalonia will have to work close with the European institutions to achieve a successful programme in line with the Lisbon objectives.
This section is sponsored by the Government of Catalonia.
For more information: www.gencat.cat
