§ Mr. SykesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when the Government will implement revised arrangements for administering European structural funds for England. [21388]
§ Mr. CurryFollowing my announcement of 3 December 1996,Official Report, column 580, we notified the European Commission about the revised arrangements, and issued draft administrative guidance to programme monitoring committee partners, the local authority associations and the Training and Enterprise Councils National Council. The consultation demonstrated general support for introducing a more strategic, integrated approach to the administration of European structural fund programmes in England through the introduction of action plans and a single European regional development fund vote. Detailed points have been made about the implementation of this approach which the Government will consider further.
We expect the European Commission to agree the 1997 to 1999 objective 2 programmes during April. To ensure that work on the implementation of these programmes can proceed without delay, we shall therefore finalise and issue the administrative guidance as soon as possible.
The Government have taken account of the views of local partners about the position in the Mersyside objective 1 area where, as with objective 5(b) areas, there is an on-going six-year programme covering the period until December 1999. In all these areas, the revised arrangements will apply where the appropriate programme monitoring committees wish to adopt them for the remaining life of the current programmes.