HC Deb 18 June 1998 vol 314 cc319-20W
33. Mrs. Ellman

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what steps she will take to ensure that Merseyside receives a fair allocation of objective 1 funding relative to other European objective 1 areas. [45084]

Mrs. Roche

We are at an early stage in the negotiation on the Commission's proposed reform for the Structural and Cohesion Funds from 2000 to 2006. The Commission have not made any detailed proposals for the financial allocations to individual areas. When they do, the Government will press for the future allocation of the European Structural Funds to be fair and affordable to the UK and its regions.

35. Mr. Andrew George

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment she has made of the requirement to ensure that each United Kingdom bid for EU objective 1 status is from a territory recognised by the United Kingdom as a European region. [45086]

Mrs. Roche

The present criterion for Objective 1 is as followsregions at NUTS level 11 whose per capita GDP, on the basis of the figures for the last three years, is less than 75 per cent. of the Community average".

This applies across the European Union.

The Commission produced draft proposals on 18 March for the reform of the Structural and Cohesion Funds. We are at an early stage in the negotiations. I cannot therefore make an assessment of the likely eligibility of any region for Structural Funds.