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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 3 Nov 1992

Vol. 424 No. 8

Written Answers. - Cohesion Fund.

Phil Hogan

Question:

76 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Finance if agreement has been reached in respect of the new Cohesion Fund in fulfilment of the Treaty on European Union; the level of funding that will be provided; where this funding will be allocated; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

The Treaty on European Union provides for the establishment by 31 December 1993 of a Cohesion Fund to assist projects in the areas of environment and transport infrastructures which are part of trans-European networks in member states with a per capita GNP of less than 90 per cent of the Community average (Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain) which have a programme leading to the fulfilment of the conditions of economic convergence set out in Article 104 C of the Treaty.

The Delors II package, which was drawn up by the EC Commission on foot of the Treaty on European Union, provides for total funding of 10,000 MECUs for the Cohesion Fund over the period 1993 to 1997.

The meeting of the European Council in Lisbon in June 1992 agreed that the Cohesion Fund should be put in place early in 1993, and that the cumulative effect of the Structural Fund and Cohesion Fund in the less developed regions concerned would be an increase appropriate to reflect the Maastricht commitments. The Lisbon Council also set a target of reaching decisions on the various aspects of the Delors II package at the forthcoming meeting of the European Council to be held in Edinburgh in December 1992.

Detailed discussions at Community level are proceeding with a view to agreeing the details of the Fund.

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