Vol. 500 No. 1
84 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation whether the URBAN initiative, established by the last Government, will be affected in the future due to the loss of Objective One status arising from the regionalisation proposals submitted by the Government. [3419/99]
URBAN is a Community initiative of the European Commission under which assistance is made available for integrated development programmes for a limited number of geographically defined deprived urban areas throughout the EU, irrespective of whether these areas are located in Objective One regions or otherwise. The question of Objective One status, or otherwise, for Ireland, arising from the regionalisation proposals submitted by the Government will not, therefore, have any bearing on future of the URBAN initiaive. Although the Commission's Agenda 2000 proposals do not contemplate the continuance of the URBAN initiative after 1999, the Government is pressing for its retention, and is pursuing this objective in the context of the overall Agenda 2000 negotiations.
