European Union News - Regional Policy

On 4 December 2007, the European Commission approved INTERACT 2007-13, a European Territorial Cooperation Programme that covers the whole of the European Union, plus Norway and Switzerland. The Programme aims to promote good governance of Community-funded Programmes that fall within the framework of the European Territorial Cooperation Objective and has a total budget of around €40 million. Community investment through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) amounts to some €34 million, which represents approximately % of the total EU investment earmarked for the European Territorial Cooperation Objective under the Cohesion Policy for 2007-13.

The European Commision competition servicies authorisated State aid pursuant to Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development in the United Kigdom. The official text has been published in the OJ last 23 april 2008.

In order to support the exchange of experience amongst innovation practitioners in Europe's regions and cities detailed case studies of 122 different projects co-financed under the Cohesion Policy of the European Union are now available. These case studies concern the 26 RegioStars 2008 finalists and 58 further case studies from the Objective 1 and Objective 2 programmes 2000-2006. The new project descriptions complement the 38 cases from the regional programmes of innovative actions 2000-2006 published already in 2007.

The European Parliament (EP) is failing to project an image, good or bad, of itself in the minds of over half of Europe’s citizens. The result is a lack of engagement and fall in the number of people participating in European elections. However, campaigning raises the visibility of the Parliament, and the more information people have the more positively they feel towards the institution. These are just some of the findings from a study conducted by the EU-funded CIVICACTIVE project.

The European Commission decided on the 16 April 2008, to open a formal investigation procedure to look into complaints about subsidies paid by the Scottish Executive to the Scottish ferry companies NorthLink and CalMac.

The European Commission (EC) published in the Official Journal of the European union (OJ), notices from various member states including information of the Authorisation for State aid pursuant to Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty Cases where the Commission raises no objections (2008/C 94/02).

Details of the new Operational Programme 2007-13  Competitiveness and Employment Programme taking palce various regions of the Unikted Kingdom. The Programmes are under the Competitiveness and Employment Objective, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The authorities of Brussels-Capital Region, in close partnership with the European Commission and the City of Brussels, are launching a major competition aimed at defining a new urban design for the European Quarter. The area devoted to the competition includes the zone around the rue de la Loi, between the circular ring and the chaussée d’Etterbeek.

A record 217 regions and cities from 32 countries have signed up as partners for the OPEN DAYS 2008 European Week of Regions and Cities, the biggest annual gathering of EU and regional policy-makers, experts and representatives of banking, business and civil society groups operator in the regional policy sector.