Vol. 443 No. 6
28 Mr. Barrett asked the Minister for Finance the plans, if any, he has to adhere to the wishes of the Committee of the Regions to have local and regional authorities represented on the committee set up to approve and supervise Cohesion Fund projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
35 Mr. Barrett asked the Minister for Finance the plans, if any, he has to adhere to the wishes of the Committee of the Regions to have local and regional authorities represented on the committee set up to approve and supervise Cohesion Fund projects.
As Questions Nos. 28 and 35 are identical, I propose to take them together.
Article 130d of the Treaty provides for the establishment of a Cohesion Fund. The European Council at Edinburgh specified the scope of this instrument and the conditions under which it is to operate. The Cohesion Fund is designed to assist the less developed member states to finance major projects in environment and trans-European networks, while at the same time assisting them to comply with the convergence guidelines set down in the Maastricht Treaty.
The selection of projects to be financed therefore, is primarily a matter for the beneficiary member states and the Commission.
Article F of the draft implementing provisions (Annex II) to the Cohesion Fund regulation provides for the monitoring of the implementation of projects financed by the fund, including the involvement, where appropriate, of local and regional authorities. It is the Government's intention that the local and regional authorities will be involved in reviewing the Cohesion Fund projects, as well as the Structural Funds expenditure, through the operational committees on EU funding under the new regional authority structure.
