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Why Does European Regional Policy Matter?
Regional Policy is an
important expression of the solidarity of the EU. All
European citizens, irrespective of which country or region they are
from, should live in a society that works for the good of the many,
and not for the wealth of the few. Although the European
Union is one of the richest parts of the world, there are strong
disparities between the incomes and opportunities for European
citizens living in different countries and regions. Many
people are unaware that the EU generates 43% of its economic output
in just 14% of its territory. This area is known as the
geographical pentagon – formed by London, Hamburg, Munich, Milan
and Paris.
The social disparities
between regions are significant and have deepened over the past few
years, largely as a result of enlargement. European Regional
Policy is in line with priorities set by the EU for economic
growth, job stability and improving living standards for all.
Regional policy is designed to create the right conditions for
regions to contribute towards achieving sustainable growth and
competitiveness.
Regional Policy is as
much in the interests of the richer regions of the EU, as it is in
the interest of the poorer regions. Europe should not be a
society of entrenched inequalities. Being born poor in
a deprived region does not mean that you should be poor for
life. For too long, regions
within the United Kingdom, and across the whole of Europe,
have been allowed to fall behind and too many citizens have been
unable to fully develop their potential and talent. Labour in
Europe believes that this is fundamentally wrong. The
European Structural and Cohesion Funds make up a large part of the
EU’s budget. It is safe to say that these European funding
programmes have already made a significant difference, from helping
poorer member states to catch up with their richer counterparts, to
financing infrastructural projects across Europe and improving
business productivity and competitiveness.
Regional
Policy in Practice
The EU is a unique
partnership. European Regional Policy puts this partnership
into practice by strengthening the social, economic and territorial
cohesion between its members.
The
Structural and Cohesion funds are
the main
EU financial instruments for supporting the social and economic
re-structuring of areas and regions across Europe. The
Cohesion fund provides additional
funding
to member states that have a
gross national income per capita below 90% of the EU average.
The European Social Fund - one of the EU’s Structural Funds - was
set up to improve employment opportunities in the EU and to equip
the workforce with the skills needed in order to participate fully
in a global competitive market. The European Regional
Development Fund deals more specifically with ‘physical’
investments; namely infrastructural changes and enterprise
development.
Scotland
has received European funding for over twenty five years
and during that time over two billion
has been spent on projects which have helped to re-generate whole
communities, to strengthen the local work base and to support
ground breaking research and innovation. The overall amount
spent is normally matched ‘pound for pound’ by money from local or
national or other external sources. The displaying of the EU
‘flagship’ signs next to areas and projects that have received
funding is a highly visible and practical way of showing people how
important European integration is to local
communities.
The importance of these
funded projects cannot be over-stated. Although the UK is one
of the most prosperous countries within the EU, some of our cities
continue to have pockets of deprivation amongst the worst in
Europe. For more than two decades, the regeneration of
Glasgow – which for a long time has been regarded as one of the
UK’s poorest cities - has been made possible partly due to
financing from the EU. Glasgow City Council has set up a
dedicated European Funding Team which provides assistance to
projects which may be eligible for European funding. It is
always a pleasure to see European funding addressing community
priorities and needs. European funding is just one way of
preventing whole areas from sinking into the poverty gap, and being
left behind as the rich get richer and the poor get
poorer.
It is vital that
deprived areas and communities within the UK continue to receive
much needed funding from Europe. Although the EU faces a
severe East-West poverty gap, it must not be forgotten that there
are a number of areas which lag behind in economic terms within the
EU 15. Let us not forget that thanks to EU funding areas of
high unemployment across the UK, such as coalfields and rural
areas have been helped to
recover from the decline of heavy industries and financing has been
used to help these areas cope with the emergence of new industries.
Thousands upon thousands of unemployed youngsters, disabled
persons and women returning to work after bringing up their
families have and will continue to benefit from money injected from
the EU. If the UK were to lose a significant amount of this
money, the consequences would be great and hard
felt.
Our
membership of the European Union is vital. As part of the EU,
the UK has benefitted from funding opportunities that would not
have been possible if we had relied on our ‘homegrown’ funds.
Labour in Europe firmly
supports that
communities all across the UK have prospered and thrived as a
result of financing from Europe. But there is more to be
done. It is vital that neither Scotland nor the rest of the
UK misses out on EU funding. More must be done to ensure that
the people of Britain – particularly small and medium sized
businesses – are aware of the funding opportunities and are able to apply and take
advantage of what resources are available to them. In
addition, there are many parts of the UK which could benefit
further from European funding. It is important that political
representatives across the board – from local to national –
continue to voice the need for greater European funding in the UK
and do not neglect the areas of real hardship across our country.
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Regional Europe
