EU Update – February 2005
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EU Policy update
Common Agricultural Policy
The CAP is going through a period of reform which has divided it into Pillar I and Pillar II. Pillar I covers the direct payments to farmers which is changing from a payment on a headage system to a land stewardship based system, this system is called decoupling. However Cumbria is watching more closely Pillar II developments which have been open to consultation and are of key importance to the Cumbrian rural environment.
Pillar II concerns the Rural Development side of CAP which has several strands:
- Axis 1 “Improving the competitiveness of the agricultural and forestry section” which contains 4
sub-sections, a minimum of 15% of the expenditure must be spend on this Axis. - Axis 2 “Land Management” which contains 4 sub-sections, a minimum of 25% must be spent on
this axis. - Axis 3 “Diversification of the rural economy and the quality of life in rural areas” which contains
4 sub-sections, a minimum of 15% must be spent on this axis. - “LEADER” Axis, a minimum of 7% must be spent on this axis by Member States.
For more details about the revised rural development regulation click here
Rural Development Regulations Schedule
- Draft Rural Regulation documents were presented by the Commission July 2004 and put out to consultation
- RST held a consultation with Cumbrian partners and submitted a Cumbrian response to the DEFRA website
- Revised draft regulations having taken into account Member States negotiations and responses
were presented by the Commission January 2005 which had little change to the original document besides wording - An opinion has been sought from the Committee of the Regions on the draft regulations
- Community Strategic guidelines are going to be produced around the end of February 2005 (this document will be used as the basis for the Member States National Strategy)
- The UK will prepare a National Strategy in 2007 once the Commission draft regulations have been agreed the National Strategy will be based on these
European Rural Exchange Network (ERE)
The RST has started to attend the European Rural Exchange network which is a unique forum for all regional local authorities in the UK to come together to discuss and take action on one specific subject area - Rural issues. The network is a very useful forum for exchange and gathering of the latest information on CAP and general Rural Development issues.
- European Rural Exchange Network is going to commission a study to highlight the importance of rural areas, as the proposed study currently stands it is a reaction to the cohesion proposals for Competitiveness and Employment but will be re-worked to study what is missing from the
proposals such as planning issues, populations decrease and how to sustain it and barriers to Competition and Employment. It is proposed that the study is carried out by desk-research and interviews with ERE members. - The ERE stance on LEADER mainstreaming is that it should not be mainstreamed, a paper by
Steve Smith of the ERE network and a summary of this may be used to submit to DEFRA. ERE members have been invited to feedback on the paper before it goes to DEFRA.
Structural funds post-2006
Any progress on the development of structural fund programmes is now mired in detailed negotiation over the content of the regulations governing the new ESF and ERDF funds. For those of you deeply interested in the intricacies of future EU funds, please click here
Last month, Eurostat published the latest GDP figures for EU regions, showing that Cumbria ’s GDP was the sixth lowest in the UK . Later this year, the figures for 2003 will be available, and the Commission
will formally allocate convergence funds to those with a GDP lower than 75% of the EU average. At the moment, Cumbria ’s GDP is not low enough to qualify for convergence funding, but obviously we will monitor this situation. For more detail on this, click here
Constitution
Eurobarometer has carried out a pan-European survey to obtain some early information on public opinion on the Constitution. On 12 th January 2005 the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly for the Constitution by 500 for, 137 against and 40 abstaining. The survey results showed that in the UK 20% based on what they know about the Constitution were in favour, compared to 72% in Italy and 48% in France . The probability that those questioned would go to vote on a referendum to ratify the Constitution showed 45% in the UK , compared to 68% in Denmark and 51% in France . Perhaps the most important figures for the UK are those about knowledge of the EU Constitution – 50% of those questioned had not heard of it, 44% had heard of it but knew very little about its contents and only 6% had heard of it and knew its contents. The highest figures for having heard of the Constitution came from those questioned in Finland , Czech Republic and Slovakia of 67%. And the highest figures for those knowing contents of the Constitution were 22% in Luxembourg , closely followed by 19% in the Netherlands . These figures show that the UK has some way to go to inform and convince its citizens of the contents of the Constitution before there is a referendum in the UK which could produce a Yes vote.
Transnational Programmes
Sixth Framework for Research and Development
The sixth Framework, or FP6, is a notoriously complex programme, with many themes, all issuing calls for proposals at different times. As a research programme, it tends to be associated with universities, but many of the calls explicitly recognise the role of SMEs and public organisations. Three upcoming calls of particular interest are:
Under the theme of Human Resources and Mobility, there is a call under the Marie curie programme for mobility of researchers (e.g. conferences, training courses)
Deadline 18 May 2005
Details at:http://fp6.cordis.lu/fp6/call_details.cfm?CALL_ID=192
Many different calls are open within the theme of Citizens and governance in a knowledge-based society, including topics such as the use of knowledge for economic and social development, new forms of governance and research in the fields of humanities and social policy.
Deadline for all calls under this theme 13 April 2005.
Details at:http://fp6.cordis.lu/citizens/calls.cfm
One call that is of particular interest to policy-makers as much as researchers is under the theme of
Coherent Development of Research and Innovation Policies, and is entitled Regions of Knowledge
Deadline 19 May 2005 . Details at:http://fp6.cordis.lu/fp6/call_details.cfm?CALL_ID=180
Leonardo
Leonardo is the EU’s vocational training programme. It can finance study visits, work placements and collaborative projects between European regions. There is a call for proposals under the mobility theme which closes on 10 June. This strand can support workers or students from the UK to undertake placements and study visits elsewhere in Europe . For full details, go to www.leonardo.org.uk
Events
Foreign and Commonwealth Office and DTI “Your World Conference”
The RST attended the Your World conference held by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office looking at how to disseminate the relevance of foreign policy and foreign affairs to people living in the North West . There was a speech by John McGovern, Director of the International Office at Lancaster University which presented the University’s International links. 1 in 4 students at the University are non-British and 1 in 6 staff are non-British, the University has 76,000 students across 148 countries. There was also a speech by Douglas Alexander Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs. The MP speech outlined how foreign policy and domestic policy cannot really be thought of as separate entities especially in light of recent terrorism escalation in the world, that in fact domestic security depends on foreign policy. The MP outlined the UK’s plans for its Presidency of the G8 being tackling climate change, cancelling third world debt and improving the EU economy to benefit EU citizens.
The second half of the conference consists of break-out groups, the RST attended the Partnerships and networks and Trade and Investment groups. The Partnerships group had a range of members from FCO, police, Britain in Europe group, Friends of the Earth and languages network group. The RST offered the services of the EU Update to disseminate foreign policy issues which are relevant to Cumbria , and thus made contact with the Britain in Europe campaign and the FCO representative for the provision of updated foreign policy information. The Trade and Investment group had the NW coordinator for Trade and Investment, Chinatown magazine representative and a Leonardo Da Vinci Polish placement on work experience with Grampus Training and Heritage, from Cumbria . The RST offered insight into the Cumbrian business environment and the current problems it faces in terms of trade and investment.