Annex 4
EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL FUNDS IN WALES 2000-06
BACKGROUND
The European Structural Funds Programme 2000-06
provides an important opportunity for Wales to increase its economic
and social prosperity and help achieve the aims set out in the
Assembly's 10-year economic strategy, "A Winning Wales".
For the Objective 1 Programme, the largest of
the programmes in Wales, nearly £1.2 billion of structural
funds will support some £2.7 billion of investment across
West Wales and the Valleys. To date, over £530 million has
been committed to some 880 projects, which are helping to support
a stronger Welsh economy and a better-trained workforce.
A wide range of quality, innovative projects
are coming forward from all sectors to help manufacturing and
trade in Wales—these range from multi-million pound, strategic
projects run by intermediary organisations such as Welsh Development
Agency, Finance Wales, Wales Tourist Board, Wales Trade International,
Accelerate Wales to smaller private sector and local community-based
projects.
All of which are helping to regenerate Wales's
poorest communities—by promoting the birth rate of SMEs,
encouraging entrepreneurship, increasing competitiveness, supporting
key infrastructure developments, ICT, Innovation and R&D,
and the use of sustainable technologies, as well as facilitating
the diversification of rural industries. Funding has also been
committed to projects to help equip both the unemployed and the
workforce with high-level, adaptable skills that are necessary
to meet the changing demands of the economy. Far-reaching economic
benefits are also apparent in the support of projects aimed at
increasing collaboration between colleges and SMEs, in turn facilitating
knowledge transfer and innovation and the exploitation of new
and growth-sector technologies for Wales.
PROJECTS SUPPORTING
MANUFACTURING AND
TRADE
Examples of European-funded, strategic projects
helping manufacturing and trade in West Wales and the Valleys
are as follows:
— International Trade Development
programme, Wales Trade International (Objective 1 grant value:
£3.9 million), to help SMEs who are either first time exporters
or looking to develop new markets and thus help to develop companies.
It is an initiative that will exclusively address international
trade as a means of company development.
— Accelerate Wales, Welsh Development
Agency (Objective 1 grant value: £1.7 million), to promote
within automotive component suppliers, best practice methods of
working together as an extended enterprise as well as assisting
companies to implement "Lean Thinking" and a full range
of workplace "Tools and Techniques" within their own
site.
— Technology Exploitation Programme
2000, Welsh Development Agency (Objective 1 grant value: £4.2
million), involving the audit of 1,560 SMEs in the Objective 1
region to identify and prioritise their technology needs. The
scheme also includes the provision of financial support to help
SMEs implement new technologies.
— Finance Wales (Objective 1
grant value £20 million) providing loans and equity funding
to SMEs together with professional management support.
European-funded projects run by the private
sector are also helping manufacturing and trade in Wales. For
example:
— WASP 1 & WASP 2, SCT (UK)
Ltd (Total Objective 1 ERDF & ESF grant £2.7 million)
The WASP 1 project will provide and implement all hardware, software
and infrastructure that is needed for the WASP 2 project. The
latter project will establish a Data Centre and adopt an integrated
approach to support the development of SMEs by providing ICT,
design and management tools, along with user training, management
training and support, financial advice and set-up assistance aimed
at developing sustainable enterprises with long-term quality employment.
STATE AIDS
AND STRUCTURAL
FUNDS
State Aids
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) sets out
the principles underlying relations between the UK Government
and the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales. Annex C to
that MoU contains a concordat on financial assistance to industry
and applies broadly uniform arrangements to the handling of matters
in the field of financial assistance to industry. The MoU is in
turn supplemented by a concordat between the Cabinet of the National
Assembly for Wales and the Department of Trade and Industry (concordat).
The concordat provides details of the working
arrangements in respect of State Aid issues. This recognises that
the DTI, effectively through its State Aid Branch (SAB), has overall
responsibility across Government Departments and devolved administrations
for co-ordinating UK policy advice on State Aid, providing advice
on the application of State Aid rules, and taking forward all
UK notifications with the Commission services (except for transport
and agriculture/fisheries).
The WAG has in place arrangements for co-ordinating
notifications of aid, collecting details of aid exempted under
EC block exemptions and completing annual monitoring returns to
the European Commission, to help them maintain detailed records
of state aid across the EU and also for the provision of information
to the World Trade Organisation. All this information is channelled
to the Commission through the DTI.
WAG officials meet other Government officials
quarterly, to discuss policy developments and specific cases.
The lead is taken by DTI who also organise quarterly seminars
held involving the relevant Whitehall Departments, the Devolved
Administrations, and representatives of the English regions. WAG
and DTI have organised joint training events in Wales.
WAG disseminates information to Assembly Sponsored
Public Bodies and local government. The training mentioned above
has been made available to external and internal partners.
The future of Structural Funds
The European Commission is expected to publish
initial proposals for the next round of structural funds programmes
(covering 2007-13) this Autum. The proposals are likely to focus
the lion's share of the structural funds on the 10 new EU Member
States. The Assembly Government will be particularly interested
in the Commission's proposals for those regions in the current
EU that receive structural funds but are expected to lose Objective
1 eligibility as a result of the statistical effect of EU enlargement.
It is not possible at this stage to know how
much emphasis will be given to the support for manufacturing and
trade in the Commission's proposals.
The UK Government's initial negotiating position,
announced on 17 September, is that Member States with greater
than 90% of the EU GDP per capita measured in purchasing power
parities, should domestically fund their regional assistance.
Less prosperous Member States would continue to receive Community
support.
Officials of the Welsh Assembly Government work
with the Department of Trade and Industry on this policy area.
Welsh Assembly officials are members of the DTI led Structural
Funds Steering Group. DTI and HM Treasury officials have presented
the UK Government's emerging proposals to the National Assembly
for Wales' European and External Affairs, and Economic Development
Committees.
10 October 2004
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