Arising from this, the General Regulation laying down general provisions on the ERDF, the ESF and the Cohesion Fund makes provision for an overarching Strategic Guidelines document that would set out how investments would aim to meet these Cohesion objectives. The purpose of the Community Strategic Guidelines is to define the key priorities for EU Cohesion Policy over the 2007-13 period. These are to promote and encourage innovation, the knowledge economy, enterprise, research and development and ICT. In addition, Cohesion Policy will support improvements in the attractiveness of regions, improved accessibility and the level of services available. This aims at providing Member States with a framework by which national and regional investment programmes can be analysed with respect to the contribution that they make to the Lisbon and Göteborg objectives while allowing Member States to craft Programmes in a manner that reflects regional and local situations. This Operational Programme has been framed within the context of the Community Strategic Guidelines.
