CONCENTRATION
51. There was a consensus
among our witnesses that the structural funds need to be further
concentrated in the period after 1999. At present 51 per cent
of the population of the EU lives in an area eligible for receipt
of funds under the spatially determined Objectives (1, 2, 5b and
6). Commissioner Wulf-Mathies suggested that a better geographical
spread would cover no more than 35 per cent of the EU population
(Q 508). Even those we met in Ireland, which has been so successful
in the management of its economy and the in-flow of EU funds in
recent years that it is no longer one of the poorest countries
of the EU, accepted the case for further concentration after 1999,
the end of the present planning period.
Opinion: concentration
52. Funds spread
very thinly will be dissipated with less than optimal results.
We recommend that for the period after 1999 a substantial geographical
concentration of funding should take place. We offer some ideas
on how this might be achieved below in the context of our other
ideas on the reform of the funds.
