§ Mr. MorganTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what arrangements he has made to provide expedited approval procedures for European regional development fund assistance for schemes to enable early approvals to be gained to provide an incentive for infrastructure schemes to be carried out by local authorities and other eligible infrastructure-providing bodies.
§ Mr. Sainsbury[holding answer 2 March 1993]: My right hon. Friend has made no such arrangements. The possibility of ERDF assistance should be incentive enough to local authorities and other bodies to seek early approval for schemes which may qualify for grant. Applications must be appraised to ensure that they give value for money.
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Mr. O'NeillTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what percentage of the United Kingdom's share of the European regional development fund for 1992–93 has been allocated.
§ Mr. Sainsbury[holding answer 2 March 1993]: It is not possible to derive figures for the allocation of only the 1992–93 part of the United Kingdom's share of the European regional development fund, many of the programmes span longer periods.
Approximately two thirds of the United Kingdom's share of the fund for the present period of the regulations from 1989–93 has been allocated.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the negotiations with the European Community Commissioner for Regional Affairs in relation to the achievement of(a) transparency, (b) additionality and (c) sequential causality in the approval procedures for assistance from the European regional development fund from United Kingdom local authorities and other eligible bodies.
§ Mr. Sainsbury[holding answer 2 March 1993]: In accordance with the appropriate Community regulations, receipts from the European regional development fund are taken into account in setting departmental expenditure programmes.
The Government will implement from the beginning of the next financial year new arrangements to improve the transparency of the public expenditure treatment of these receipts, as agreed with the Commission.
A number of meetings have taken place at official level to explain to the Commission progress on these new arrangements, which are at present being finalised.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what consultations he has had with local authorities and their associations and other eligible infrastructure-providing bodies in relation to the impact of the approval of areas of Britain for European regional development fund objective 1 status on the availability of funds for areas with objective 2 status.
§ Mr. Sainsbury[holding answer 2 March 1993]: None. it was only on 24 February that the Commission adopted a proposed list of objective 1 regions for the period 1994 to 1999 which included the Highlands and Islands and Merseyside, as well as Northern Ireland whose objective 1 status was confirmed by the European Council at Edinburgh. The final decisions on which regions will be eligible for objective 1 rests with the Council of Ministers in the context of the review of the structural fund regulations.