BMW Regional Assembly Marches in Brussels to Maintain EU Regional Development Funding

The campaign to ensure that Ireland will continue to receive Structural Funding into the future is taken to the streets of Europe’s capital.

With Ireland receiving the equivalent of €2 million per week in EU Structural Funding support throughout the 2007-2013 period, a decision on the future shape of EU Regional Policy from 2014 onwards will be of major national significance. There are concerns that the next generation of funds could be restricted to only the very poorest parts of the EU - leaving Ireland out in the cold. This prospect has encouraged regions right across the EU to campaign collectively in order to demonstrate why such a change would be misguided.

While the bulk of Structural Funds spending is channeled towards providing a means for regions lagging behind to catch up, some resources are used to support tailored, place-based interventions designed to help all regions, regardless of their income levels, to properly realise their own development potential. This arrangement reflects EU Regional Policy’s integral contribution to wider European goals of creating the conditions for competitive regional economies in which employment can flourish – in line with new ‘Europe 2020’ Strategy for smart, sustainable and socially inclusive growth.

In Ireland this takes the form of a national employment and human resources development programme as well as two Regional Programmes covering the Border, Midland & Western (BMW) and Southern & Eastern (S&E) Regions. The value of EU support delivered to Ireland through these programmes is significantly in excess of the national take from any other EU source, with the exception of the Common Agriculture Policy.

As a means of developing a critical mass to lobby against a radical remodeling of the funds, the Irish regions have helped create an alliance of 141 similarly affected regions. On 7 October, political representatives from across Europe gathered in Brussels to formally sign a joint declaration of intent to secure significant continued European support for all regions.  After a symbolic march to the Commission Headquarters, the official dossier was presented to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn as well as the Presidents of the European Parliament and EU Committee of the Regions. Cllr. Joe Flanagan (Westmeath County Council) and Cllr. John Ryan (Wicklow County Council) signed the declaration in their capacities as Chairs of the BMW and S&E Regional Assemblies respectively. 

More Information:

1. The European Commission will publish its Budget Review, in October, setting out the future shape of the EU budget post-2013. In November, the Commission will make its proposals on the future of the Structural Funds. Negotiations on these will take place over the next two years or so.

2. Ireland is currently eligible for ‘Competitiveness and Employment’ (also known as ‘Objective 2’) support under the Structural Funds. This co-finances a set of strategic programmes negotiated between the government and the European Commission to correspond to an agreed set of priority investment areas. The funding is ring-fenced for use in Ireland.

3. The Human Capital Investment Programme, providing €375 million from the European Social Fund (ESF), is managed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation. Separately, the two Regional Programmes support targeted investments in research capacity; micro-enterprise support; ICT; environmental management; renewable energy; urban development; and transport across the Border, Midland & Western (BMW) and Southern & Eastern (S&E) Regions. Their allocations from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) are €228.8 million and €146.6 million respectively. In all cases this is complemented by exchequer funding.

4. The regional programmes are managed by the BMW and S&E Regional Assemblies whose membership is composed of elected representatives nominated by their respective local & regional authorities.

5. The most recently available regional GDP figures (for 2007) indicate that the effects of the economic downturn have forced the BMW Region to drop below the EU average – a figure which itself had fallen significantly with the enlargements of the EU in 2004 and 2007.

6. The value of Structural Funds that Ireland is receiving for 2007-2013 is significantly in excess of even the most optimistic governmental targets set for Irish involvement in successful applications to the highly competitive €53 billion Seventh Framework Research Programme over the same timeframe.