European Union News - Regional Policy

The Agriculture and Rural Development Directorate has Published last 19 may 2009 a call for tender for the Leader + 'Ex post' evaluation

Scarborough Renaissance Partnership project was selected for its impressive results in brining down seasonal unemployment. Five other initiatives from local authorities in Finland, Germany, Hungary, Spain and Sweden received award, which was part of the events organized during the celebration of the first European SME Week.

The Council adopted on May 6th 2009 decisions approving the granting of a loan of EUR 5 billion to Romania to enable it to face up to its current financial difficulties. The loan is part of a EUR 20 billion package of assistance to support Romania's balance of payments in the medium term.

The European Commission has agreed to propose to the Council to provide a medium-term loan to Romania of up to €5 billion. The proposed financial assistance, which is expected to be on the agenda of the next meeting of the EU finance ministers on May 5th,  would be part of a multilateral package which will total up to €20bn. The assistance is conditional upon the implementation of a comprehensive economic programme to which the Romanian authorities committed to and which will, ultimately, put the Romanian economy on a sound and sustainable footing.

The Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, has publishes on April 17th 2009, the Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council of March 11th 2009, on mobilisation of the European Union Solidarity Fund, in accordance with the Interinstitutional Agreement of May 17th 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management.

The seventh annual OPEN DAYS - European Week of Regions and Cities, which this year takes place on 5-8 October in Brussels, is set to be the biggest yet. This year, the event will feature more than 100 seminars, workshops, debates, exhibitions and meetings with 7,000 participants, expected in Brussels alone, most of them experts in regional and urban development from ministries and other bodies. In addition, another 300 local events in countries all over Europe will reach out to a wider public increasing the number of potential visitors to more than 30,000.

The European Commission (EC) has awarded for 18.089.698 euros the development of the external audit external audit of contractors financed by the European Commission under the 6th framework programme for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2002 to 2006) according to the Official Journal.

The Official Journal has published last 4 april 2009 a tender for identifying and aggregating elasticities for spill-over effects due to linkages and externalities in the main sectors of investment co-financed by the EU cohesion policy.

The European Commission adopted on October 22nd 2008 a Decision on setting up a European Cluster Policy Group with the aim to explore how to better assist Member States in supporting the emergence of more world-class clusters in the EU. Following a call for applications, the members of the Group have now been appointed.

Danuta Hübner, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, announced on March 9th 2009 that 105 billion Euro will be invested in the "green economy" through the EU Cohesion Policy. The funding, which represents more than 30% of the regional policy budget for 2007-2013, offers a solid platform for job creation and a significant boost for regions and cities in their quest to maintain Europe's global leadership in the field of green technologies.