Agenda 2000: European Regional Development Fund ERDF

1998/0114(COD)
In adopting the report by Mr Daniel VARELA SUANZES-CARPEGNA (EPP, E) Parliament called for the ERDF to contribute in particular to: - compensating for the disadvantages of remote and island regions and improving the situation of regions on the Union's external borders; - the creation of jobs, social integration and equality of opportunity, protection and improvement of the environment and promotion of sustainable and balanced development throughout the Union. In this context Parliament called on the ERDF to intervene with a view to: - creating productive investments allowing the creation and safeguarding of permanent jobs and the adoption of production methods which make economical use of resources; - developing European networks in the area of transport, including maritime transport, telecommunications and energy infrastructures, taking account of the need to create links between island, landlocked and remote regions and between those regions and the Community's central regions; - preserving biodiversity; - supporting local development and employment initiatives and other activities of small and medium-sized enterprises and craft industries; - assisting towards services for enterprises, in particular in the fields of management, new forms of work organisation, eco-auditing and advisory services; - financing the transfer of technology, including the collection and dissemination of information, cooperation between research institutes and enterprises, financing the adaptation of enterprises to new technology, quality procedures and technical and environmental standards; - aid for structures providing neighbourhood services to create new jobs, including the development of the social economy; - supporting regional interinstitutional cooperation and measures to encourage cooperation; - supporting business initiatives in new types of employment; - supporting cultural investment of a job-creating nature, including the protection of the cultural and natural heritage; - developing sustainable tourism, preserving or restoring a region's industrial base, promoting the conversion of military sites, supporting activities to promote urban areas facing problems; - conserving and improving natural habitats; - encouraging local development supporting the organisation of new forms of economic activity, job creation and the improvement of infrastructures. Parliament wished the ERDF to contribute to the development of the Community's urban policy initiative in order to be able to react to future unexpected and severe economic crises at European level. �