Areas which qualify for EU assistance fall into one or more 'Objective' categories. Objective 1 relates both to member states and regions within those states where the GDP per head of population at the date of inception was less than 75% of the average for the EU as a whole. Three complete countries (Greece, Ireland and Portugal) and parts of eight other states were below the threshold. One quarter of the total EU population (92 million inhabitants) are within the scope of Objective 1.
Objective 2 is directed at relieving unemployment which has resulted from changes to the industrial infrastructure of regions, although several urban districts qualify simply on the grounds of their inherent state of decay. Greece, Ireland and Portugal are excluded from consideration under this objective, which provides support for about 16.5% of the total EU population.
Objective 5b focuses on areas with a low level of socio-economic development. Less than 9% of the EU is included, while Objective 6 relates only to the areas of Finland and Sweden with a very low population density.
Commissioner Wulf-Mathies is already prepared to declare the current five-year Objective programming period a success in principle. "There will be many regions where income per head will remain below the 75% level, however, so there is still plenty of work to be done there. The strongest economic areas have made a great leap forward but some other regions have deteriorated during the life of the Objective programmes.
The proponents of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) had to come to terms with the fact that the ten most prosperous regions of the EU are already three times as rich, and are investing three times as much in their economic fabrics as the ten poorest. There was a serious risk that the EMU could worsen these regional disparities.
The Cohesion Fund was designed to provide assistance for the poorest states - the three Objective 1 nations (Greece, Ireland and Portugal) along with Spain. The Cohesion Fund provides financial support to individual investment projects and can contribute 80-85% of total public expenditure.
Dr Wulf-Mathies is acutely conscious of the part that IT can play in the development of EU economies. She is aware both of its inherent advantages and the pitfalls it can create. "On the positive side, it overcomes the problem of remoteness as communities become more closely integrated when the standard of communications is raised.
"But the tendency is for entrepreneurs to invest first in information technology within the market economy where they see the highest profit. It is vital that we can help disfavoured regions to join the information society and make sure that they are able to seize the opportunities it provides."
There is a still a wide gap between the rich and the poor member states in their use of modern information and communications technologies.
Dr Wulf-Mathies had a clear view of the regional policy formula needed to avoid a two-tier information society. "It is to combine the opening up of the market with a regulatory framework, a comprehensive implementation strategy and the shared commitment of the political and economic agents concerned. These steps will allow the creation of infrastructure and customer-orientated applications which are profitable and can therefore guarantee sustainable development on a broad front."
The Commission is planning to provide greater assistance to the less favoured regions for the use of information and communications technology, in order to prevent their falling further behind. It explicitly calls on the regions to use the potential of modem information and communications technology to promote structural change and industrial growth.
What should the role of the European Commission be in developing regional IT policies given that the member states and regions are responsible for drawing up and implementing the Community support frameworks? "The principal role of the Commission is to stimulate initial demand, co-ordinate those involved, strengthen the role of the regions as 'launching customers' and organise an ongoing exchange of experience."
Placing the West Midlands of the UK in the context of a European region implementing IT in the mould projected by the Commissioner, eCommerce provides perhaps the best prospect of seeing those objectives fulfilled.
Electronic Commerce is not a novelty application of IT in which interest will soon be lost: it is an IT-based process which underlies a positive change in the way that businesses and consumers interact; it has every opportunity to take this UK region and raise it to the next plateau of economic development.
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