Brendan Howlin TD, Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform, today welcomed the vote in the European Parliament backing proposals for a new round of Structural Funds. The agreement reached today will see Ireland’s share of Structural Funds increase to just over €1 billion which will be used to support a range of projects to promote jobs and growth.
Speaking after the vote, Minister Howlin said:
Structural Fund spending lies at the very heart of Europe’s growth agenda and will be one of the primary instruments available to the Union to drive investment and to promote jobs and growth in the years ahead.
Earlier today, at its plenary meeting in Strasbourg, the European Parliament gave its approval to a package of six regulations that will govern spending into the future. Minister Howlin noted that political agreement on four of the six regulations that were approved by the European Parliament had been reached under the Irish Presidency of the Council of Ministers after some of the most intensive negotiations of Ireland’s Presidency.
Ireland appreciates the importance of this funding and we worked hard during our Presidency to ensure that the appropriate regulatory arrangements are in place in good time for the next funding round which commences on 1 January 2014.
Mr Howlin congratulated the Lithuanian Presidency for successfully overseeing the final agreement with the Parliament. He also extended his congratulations to the chair of the influential Regional Development Committee of the Parliament, Danuta Hubner, and Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn.
During Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of Ministers I had the opportunity to work with Danuta Hubner and Johannes Hahn on the advancement of the negotiations that were concluded today.
I am pleased that political agreement on four of the six regulations that have been approved by the European Parliament was reached under the Irish Presidency of the Council of Ministers after some of the most intensive negotiations we were involved in.
Minister Howlin will be travelling to Vilinius next week for an informal meeting of Cohesion Ministers which will discuss how to maximise the benefit of Structural Funds investment over the next seven years.
The overall Cohesion package for Europe amounts to €325 billion of funding over the next seven years. Ireland will see its allocation increase to just over €1 billion in the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2014-2020
Minister Howlin noted that EU leaders had agreed at their summit last February that the next round of funding would include special allocations of €100 million for the Border, Midland & Western Region and €150 million for a new cross-border PEACE programme.