European Union Programmes 2007-13  

The EU establishes a new set of programmes every seven years. This part of the site provides an overview on areas of special interest to the sub region. Information is given on each area along with an analysis of the implications for the sub region. The programmes of interest to us are:

Competitiveness and Employment Programme
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
European Social Fund (ESF)
Rural Development Programme for England
European Research and Innovation Programmes

The site also provides links to the Yorkshire and Humber European Office

Competitiveness and Employment Programme

There are two parts of the Competitiveness and Employment Programme programmes, namely the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) currently delivered through the Objective 2 programme for 2000/2006 - and the European Social Fund (ESF). The policy for this programme will be derived from the Lisbon agenda with its emphasis on economic competitiveness.

The Government announced on 23 October 2006, through the National Strategic Reference Framework, how it would manage these programmes and what resources would be made available.

European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

This programme, which succeeds the Objective 1 programme in South Yorkshire as well as the Objective 2 programme in the other sub regions in Yorkshire and the Humber, will be implemented quite differently from predecessor programmes. Except for specially reserved funds for South Yorkshire, most of the funds will be available everywhere and activities are more likely to be supported for the economic opportunities they create rather than as response to local economic need.

A draft Operational Programme has been prepared for this region setting out the priorities. This was issued for consultation in December 2006 seeking responses by the closing date of 9 March 2007. The priorities for non South Yorkshire sub regions are expected to be as follows:

• Promoting Innovation and R&D  - aiming to increase investment in new technologies to promote the growth of a knowledge economy
• Supporting and Sustaining Successful Enterprise to develop a more entrepreneurial culture and increasing business numbers in knowledge intensive industries.
• Sustainable Communities - to connect people to economic opportunities through targeted action in deprived areas. 

The Regional Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward, rather than Government Office will be responsible for delivering the programme. They will be establishing a European Programme Team. The up to date position on this along with all documents can be found on the Government Office website for the region.   

http://www.goyh.gov.uk/goyh/eurofund/strucfunds0713/?a=42496

The Government has announced that for the Humber, North and West Yorkshire that 277 million Euros will be available over 2007/13.

The implication for this sub region is that areas such as York and Harrogate are now eligible for support, and through initiatives such as Science City York will be in strong position to capitalise on the opportunity. Other areas will also benefit but will need to focus on proposals that address competitiveness issues. The Sustainable Communities priority will only be available in Scarborough town which has a level of deprivation high enough to come into the programmes threshold. Whilst there will be no allocation to the sub region on a pro rata basis we should aim to achieve around 5 million per annum into York and North Yorkshire . The proposals to use these resources will need to be clearly set out in the Investment Plan and will need to fit in with the emerging transformational themes. See Sub Regional Investment Plan

It is not expected that proposals will be considered for support until autumn 2007.

European Social Fund (ESF)

For further information on the ESF programme please visit the ESF programme page

Over the last few years, the sub region has used ESF through co-financing programmes managed by Jobcentreplus and the Learning and Skills Councils to support programmes to help the unemployed return to work and to build up skill levels.  

The Government has decided that the ESF programme will run nationally but should work closely with the Regional Skills Partnership. The priorities are:

• Extending employment  - in particular focusing on barriers to work for disadvantaged people
• Developing a skilled and adaptable workforce including measures that concentrate on achieving level 2 (GCSE equivalent) qualifications but with some level 3 (A level equivalent) in areas of skill shortage.    

The Government has announced that for the sub regions outside South Yorkshire 191 million euros will be made available over the seven year programme, 2007/13.

The implications for the sub region are that these programmes will assist areas with concentrated problems of high numbers on incapacity benefit and this will benefit Scarborough Town and parts of York. A concentration on level 2 qualifications offers limited opportunity as our attainment levels are high. We will need to concentrate on level 3 measures to address skill shortages in key sectors. These programmes will be managed regionally. This was the case previously for Jobcentreplus but will be a change for the Learning and Skills Council when the programme was managed sub regionally before.

There will be no allocation for the sub region but we should aim to achieve on a pro rata basis 3 million pa.

 

Rural Development Programme for England

This programme utilises resources from the Common Agricultural Policy to provide a programme to support environmental actions on farms, farm diversification and measures to support rural communities and economies. Whilst the work on this programme was the most advanced of all, it was delayed at EU level. These issues are now resolved and projects can be considered from October 2007.  The Government has already agreed the priorities namely:

• Enhancing the Environment and Countryside in particular wildlife, landscape quality and the historic environment
• Making farming and forestry more competitive including skills and knowledge transfer and supporting innovation to assist farmers develop new market opportunities
• Enhancing opportunity in rural areas general investment in skills and enterprise including micro enterprise support including social enterprises.

Within this programme there will also be a LEADER initiative which will support locally driven proposals. This along with socio economic programmes of Making farming and forestry more competitive and Enhancing opportunity in rural areas and will be delivered by Yorkshire Forward. Details can be seen here

http://www.yorkshire-forward.com/www/view.asp?content_id=4405&parent_id=316

The Enhancing the Environment and Countryside priority will be delivered by Natural England. Information can be obtained here

http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/farmers/default.htm

The Government have indicated that 80% of the resources will be devoted to the environment priority. This means that around 25 million pa will be made available to Natural England for the region. It is expected that around 8 million will be allocated to Yorkshire Forward to manage for the socio economic themes

The implications of these important programmes for the sub region is that they address land based and rural economic activity not supported by other measures. In particular the can address community issues in rural areas not covered by the ERDF programme. There was a LEADER programme for Selby in the last round and for the uplands prior to that. Proposals will need to be developed to identify a further LEADER initiative locally, and Yorkshire Forward are undertaking the initial research work on this.

European Research and Innovation Programmes

The EU is putting substantial budgets into these programmes which are managed from Brussels and where delivery consortia have to be come from a number of member states (known as transnational projects). These include Framework 7 supporting both R&D and research capacity and the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework programme supporting entrepreneurship, energy and ICT policy.

Universities have been relatively successful with the earlier Framework 6. These sets of programmes offer significant potential and Yorkshire Forward have appointed  a Director of European Innovation based in the Yorkshire and Humber European Office to improve regional performance on these schemes.

They also set a marker for planning for the end of the new programme in that most funding will almost all come through transnational activity and it is important for the region and the sub region to build up relationships with comparable regions in other member states.

These are complex schemes and advice should be sort from University European Officers or the Yorkshire and Humber European Office. See below.

The Partnership Unit may be able to assist with sign posting advice. Contact Jonathan.French@ynypu.org.uk

The relevant EU site for Framework 7 is http://ec.europa.eu/research/future/index_en.cfm

Yorkshire and Humber European Office

The region has maintained an office in Brussels for many years. It is currently funded by Yorkshire Forward.

They have recently revised their website to reflect the changes taking place in Europe . With more member states, there are new and different funding opportunities available. In future, the region will be collaborating with some European regions but competing with others for funds.  These will be distributed on the basis of partnership, excellence, and new ideas.

It is clear that knowledge is the key to success.  The Brussels team, based in the European quarter, can provide early intelligence on Commission thinking, check with regions are looking for partners and ideas, offer practical and political guidance on how to get started for newcomers, give advice on the funds available and how to access them.

All this information, and more, can be found on the new website.  This is designed to make Europe and these new opportunities easy to understand and access. See www.yorkshireurope.be.

 

Last up-dated 26/11/07