asked the Minister for Finance the most severe problem that will entitle an area to regional development aid under EEC regional policy and which may be adopted as a second principle for entitlement to such aid.
Written Answers. - Regional Development Aid.
269.
Since the Community has not adopted criteria for establishing the areas in which development measures may be assisted by the proposed Regional Development Fund, it is not possible at this stage to give a definitive answer to the Deputy's question.
The final communique of the Paris Summit contemplated that intervention by a Regional Development Fund in conjunction with national aids should permit, progressively with the realisation of economic and monetary union, the correction of the main regional imbalances in the enlarged Community, and particularly those resulting from the preponderance of agriculture, from industrial change and from structural under-employment. The Summit did not, however, determine or contemplate that these latter or other problems would be ranked in order of priority in the way apparently implied by the Deputy's question. The approach of the Summit is reflected in the report of the Commission on the regional problems of the enlarged Community. This report sets out the Commission's general views on the considerations which should guide the identification of the areas which should be eligible to benefit from the interventions of the Regional Development Fund. The relevant extract from the report is given in pages 75-76 of the First Report on Development in the European Communities, to which I would refer the Deputy.
270.
asked the Minister for Finance the policies and provisions relating to regional development which the Government considers the programme for the second stage of economic and monetary union must include to help to close the gap between this country's standard of living and that of the EEC.
The evolution of Community regional policy, although related to economic and monetary union, should be looked at as separate and distinct from progress towards that union, as was emphasised in a reply on 28th June to a question from the Deputy. The principles which should, in the Government's view, be observed in the development of Community regional policy are set out in the section on regional policy of my financial statement on the budget, to which I would refer the Deputy. Those which are particularly relevant in the context of the Deputy's question are that the proposed regional development fund must be financed on a scale commensurate with the great tasks it will face, and that its resources must be concentrated on areas where the most severe problems exist.