§ Mr. David NicholsonTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a further statement on the implementation of objective 5b of the European Community's structural funds in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. SainsburyThe Council regulations allow the member states three months from the date of the decision on eligibility, 26 January, to draw up and present to the Commission plans describing the uses to which it is intended to put the funds' grants. For this purpose, the United Kingdom's objective 5b areas will comprise 11 plan areas. The plans are being prepared by Government Departments, with appropriate local consultation.
The Government have divided the indicative allocation, for the purposes of their plans, as follows:
Plan area Million ecu (1994 prices) South West England 219 Shorps/Herefordshire/Worcestershire 40 Staffordshire/Derbyshire 12 Northern Uplands 108 Lincolnshire 53 East Anglia 60 Borders of Scotland 30 Dumfries and Galloway 47 Central Scotland/Tayside 25 Grampian 39 Rural Wales 184 Total United Kingdom objective 5b 817 The regulations allow a further six months to negotiate, on the basis of the plans presented, a Community support framework for each plan area. The framework will then govern the allocation and use of the funds' grants.
Only after the Community support frameworks have been negotiated and adopted can detailed decisions be taken on projects to receive grant.