Regional development projects in EU Member States will get faster and easier access to EU structural funding, thanks to new rules backed by the Regional Development Committee on Thursday. As part of the EU's "anti-crisis" measures, advance payments will be increased for projects that help create jobs in countries worst hit by the downturn.

With total resources of €347 billion for 2007-2013, EU cohesion policy supports budgetary stability and public investment in EU regions. Its key instruments are the European Regional Development Fund, which aims to correct regional imbalances by providing direct aids to small and medium-sized firms, investing in infrastructure, and supporting R&D, and the European Social Fund, which helps fund national and regional measures to stimulate employment and help  workers adapt to economic change.

To respond to the economic crisis, EU institutions have agreed to speed up the flow of funding to regional development projects and simplify structural fund implementing rules, so as to enable public authorities to go on investing in projects, despite severe budgetary constraints.

MEPs backed plans to increase EU advance payments for projects, so as to ease the burden on national and regional public authorities, which also contribute funding. The new rules will allow countries badly hit by the economic downturn to receive advance payments in 2010 of 2% from the European Social Fund and 4% from the Cohesion Fund. To decide which countries are eligible for these increased advances, objective economic criteria will be used to measure the impact of the crisis on Member States.

Job training courses, youth apprenticeships, public works and other initiatives should thus be implemented faster, and projects that might otherwise have been axed for want of national funding may now be pursued.

The European Commission had originally suggested allowing Member States to apply for 100% reimbursement of interim payments from the European Social Fund during 2009 and 2010, but MEPs considered that full - albeit temporary - financing by the EU would go against the underlying principle of co-financing (by the EU and Member States), and would prove too costly and complicated.

Next steps

MEPs are now keen to see these simplified rules and procedures enter into force as soon as possible, to enable Member States and regions to benefit quickly from EU funding. Under the Lisbon Treaty, the revision of these rules is subject to the co-decision procedure, which puts Parliament on an equal footing with Council.

Parliament will put the proposals to a plenary vote on 21 April, and the Council is expected to formalise its position shortly thereafter, so that the measures can take effect by the summer.