§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what steps he is taking to ensure that assistance from the European Community can be targeted to those communities which have suffered directly the greatest impact of reduced demand in the level of defence procurement regardless of whether or not they have assisted area status or are suffering overall regional or industrial decline;
(2) if he will make a statement providing details of the European Community KONVER programme for assistance to areas affected by reduced demand in the defence industries; whether assistance through this programme is available only to projects in locations with assisted area status or is more widely available; and what steps he is taking to ensure that the north west of England benefits from this programme.
§ Mr. Sainsbury[holding answers 13 July 1993]: Those areas which are within an objective 2 area will be eligible for assistance for activities supported by the European regional development fund within the KONVER scheme.
Moreover the conclusions reached at the Foreign Affairs Council on 2 and 3 July on the regulations on the future of European structural funds, confirmed by the Council on 19 and 20 July, enable member states to make available to areas not designated for objective 1, 2 or 5b a limited part of the European regional development fund contribution to KONVER. The Government intend to make use of this new flexibility in the United Kingdom's 1993 KONVER programme.
All areas affected by the reduction in defence expenditure will be eligible for support under the European social fund part of the scheme.
Eligibility for the structural funds is not affected by assisted area status.