Structural Funds – Performance Reserve

I am pleased to announce that the success of European Structural Fund programmes in Wales has been further confirmed today with the award of a ‘bonus’ of more than £65 million from the European Commission.  

This is a huge vote of confidence in the achievements and management of the Structural Fund programmes in Wales.  The Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) and its partners are to be congratulated for their sterling work in managing these complex programmes.  Structural Funds are making a huge difference across Wales: creating jobs, increasing opportunities and helping to regenerate our poorest communities.

The money is from the Performance Reserve and has been allocated to the Objective 1, 2 and 3 Programmes in Wales for meeting their targets at the end of 2003 for financial, management and effectiveness (performance) criteria.

The European Commission introduced the Performance Reserve for the 2000-2006 programming period to give greater emphasis to performance management.  Four per cent of the value of each Objective Programme in each Member State was put into the Performance Reserve.

The Performance Reserve is worth a total of €91.6m (£65.4m) to Wales. There is no requirement for the additional funds from the Performance reserve to be match funded.  Wales will receive the following amounts from the Performance Reserve:

• Objective 1 €80.5m (£57.5m)
• Objective 2 €5.3m (£3.8m)
• Objective 3 €5.7m (£4.1m)

The additional funds will be allocated to projects in the following areas:

• reducing economic inactivity
•  supporting innovation and research & development
• town centre regeneratio
• sustainable countryside
• fisheries and aquaculture
• financial support for SMEs.