European Regional Development Fund - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is a fund

Structural Funds and Cohesion Funds

The Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund are financial tools set up to implement the Cohesion policy also referred to as the Regional policy of the European Union. They aim to reduce regional disparities in terms of income, wealth and opportunities...

allocated by the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

History

During the 1960s, the European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

occasionally tried to establish a regional fund. Only Italy ever supported this, however, and nothing came of it. Britain made it an issue for their accession in 1973, and pushed for its creation at the 1972 summit in Paris. Britain was going to be a large contributor to the CAP

Common Agricultural Policy

The Common Agricultural Policy is a system of European Union agricultural subsidies and programmes. It represents 48% of the EU's budget, €49.8 billion in 2006 ....

and the EEC

EEC

EEC is an abbreviation that usually refers to the European Economic Community, the forerunner to the European Union.It may also refer to;* The East Erie Commercial Railroad, a shortline in Pennsylvania...

budget, and sought to offset this deficit by having the ERDF established. They would then be able to show their public some tangible benefits of EEC membership. The ERDF was set to be running by 1973, but the 1973 oil crisis

1973 oil crisis

The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo. This was "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war. It lasted until March 1974. With the...

delayed it, and it was only established in 1975 under considerable Irish and Italian pressure.

It started with a budget of 1.4 billion units of account

European Unit of Account

The European Unit of Account was a unit of account used in the European Communities from 1975 to 1979, when it was replaced at parity by the European Currency Unit, in turn replaced at parity in 1999 by the euro....

, much smaller than the original British proposal of 2.4 billion units of account, but has increased rapidly both proportionally and absolutely in the course of time. Since its creation, it has operated under changing set of rules that were standardized with Single European Act

Single European Act

The Single European Act was the first major revision of the 1957 Treaty of Rome. The Act set the European Community an objective of establishing a Single Market by 31 December 1992, and codified European Political Cooperation, the forerunner of the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy...

and is now in its 2007-2013 period.

Scope (2007-2013)

As part of its task to promote regional development, the ERDF contributes towards financing the following measures:

Objective "Convergence"

modernising / diversifying economic structures;
creating sustainable jobs;
stimulating economic growth;
attention to areas with specific characteristics: urban, remote, mountainous, sparsely populated and the outermost regions.

Objective "Regional competitiveness & employment"

innovation and knowledge economy (research & technological development, innovation & entrepreneurship, financial engineering);
environment and risk prevention (cleaning up polluted areas, energy efficiency, clean urban public transport, risk prevention plans);
access to transport and telecommunications.

Objective "Territorial cooperation"

cross-border economic and social and environmental activities;
transnational cooperation (including bilateral cooperation between maritime regions);
interregional cooperation (including networking and exchange of experiences between regional and local authorities).

External links

North Sea Region Programme Transnational Cooperation Programme under the ERDF
Baltic Sea Region Programme Transnational Cooperation Programme under the ERDF
Alpine Space Programme Transnational Cooperation Programme under the ERDF

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History

Scope (2007-2013)

See also

External links