Peter Barry
Question:25 Mr. Barry asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if representations will be made to the EC in order to ensure that Northern Ireland is treated in the same way as this country in the distribution of regional funds.
Written Answers. - Northern Ireland EC Funding.
Richard Bruton
Question:26 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will support a change to the Maastricht Treaty to allow Northern Ireland to benefit from the new EC Cohesion Fund.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 25 and 26 together.
The Maastricht Treaty text, both in the revised Articles on economic and social cohesion and in the new Cohesion Protocol, provides a solid basis for ensuring that disparities between the more developed and less developed regions will be progressively reduced. The means available to achieve the reduction of disparities include the three existing Structural Funds, which are to be improved and made more flexible, and the new Cohesion Fund, specifically created by the Maastricht Treaty.
For the Structural Funds, the whole island, North and South, is at present treated as being among the least developed regions of the Community, the so-called Objective 1 regions. As far as the Government are concerned, there should be no change in the substantial benefit to Northern Ireland of Objective 1 status under the Structural Funds, which will continue to provide most of the Community's development finance for the rest of this decade. If there were to be any question of changing the North's status, I would certainly oppose such a change.
As regards the new Cohesion Fund, this was established at Maastricht to ease the situation of the national budgets of the poorer member states. The important point about the Cohesion Fund is that it operates on a member state rather than a regional basis and that it is additional to the Structural Funds. It will help the poorer member states to finance projects in the fields of the environment and transport infrastructure at a time when the rules of Economic and Monetary Union will require them to observe strict budget discipline. It will be available for member states with aper capita GNP that is less than 90 per cent of the Community average. Those which fulfil this criterion are Greece, Portugal and Spain, as well as Ireland.
The new Treaty, along with the Protocol, was agreed by the Heads of State or Government, and has been signed. The question of changing it does not arise. Nevertheless, the Cohesion Fund is only one of a number of instruments in favour of cohesion. Northern Ireland will benefit from the substantial improvements of the Structural Funds which are set out in the new Treaty and in the Protocol on Cohesion, and from the increased levels of those funds that will follow.