Please go to European Programmes 2007 - 2013 for latest information.

SOUTH WEST COHESION GROUP

Regional Preparations 
 
To lead regional preparations for post 2006 the South West Cohesion Steering Group was established in October 2004. The South West Cohesion Group is tasked with overseeing the development of a regional framework that will provide the context for all European programmes in the region 2007-2013. A South West Cohesion Support Group was also established to assist the work of the steering group.  
 
Working streams were identified in eleven key thematic areas to inform the framework and existing regional partnership groups were asked to undertake preparatory work. Existing and emerging regional and sub-regional strategies were used as a basis to gather the evidence and select priority areas for the regional framework.  
 
Following a number of partnership group workshops and regional consultation events, the final version of the SW Cohesion Framework (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 144.90kb) was agreed in April 2006. 
 
Regular Updates published here (newsletters 1-10 are availble from SWRDA - please contact Matthieu Havard): 
- European Cohesion Update 15 (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 99.10kb) 
- European Cohesion Policy Update No 14 (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 83.75kb) 
- European Cohesion Policy Update No 13 (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 77.98kb) 
- SW Cohesion Update No 12 (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 83.51kb) 
- European Cohesion Update No 11 (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 87.54kb)

European Budget 2007 - 2013 
 
On Friday 16th December 2005, the European Council reached political agreement on the Financial Perspectives for 2007-2013. overall budget is €862,363bn (1.045% of EU GNI). This led to negotiations on the draft Structural Funds regulations for the future programmes.  
 
European Cohesion and Structural Fund policy is driven by the Lisbon (competitiveness) and Gothenburg (sustainability) Agendas, where the EU set the goal of becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world. Any regional or sub-regional programme will need to clearly demonstrate how it contributes towards this aim. It will mean a significant increase in emphasis on competitiveness, innovation and the knowledge economy.  
 
The following objectives deliver European Cohesion policy 2007 -2013:

• 'Convergence' Objective to replace Objective 1 (regions under 75% of EU average GDP)
• 'Competitiveness' Objective to replace Objectives 2 and 3 (criteria to be determined by the Member States i.e. UK Government)
• 'Co-operation' Objective to replace Interreg.

National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) 
 
Under the terms of the Structural Funds arrangements, the UK government will be producing a National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) to set the broad objectives for future Structural Funds spending in the UK (2007-2013). The Government launched a consultation exercise on a draft NSRF - DTI - NSRF consultation. The Government called for comments on the document and sought views on two related issues: the UK Government's proposals for distributing its Structural Funds allocations under the new Competitiveness Objective and administrative arrangements for delivering the Funds during the next budgetary cycle. 
 
The South West Cohesion Group drafted and submitted a paper to Governement in May 2006 - SW response to draft NSRF (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 79.36kb). 
 
Other relevant documents: 
- NSRF regional consultation event took place in Exeter on 12 April 2006. Presentations available below: 
1. Presentation DTI - ODPM - DWP - DFeS (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation - 88.06kb) 
2. Presentation DEFRA (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation - 94.72kb) 
3. Presentation GOSW (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation - 290.30kb) 
 
- The Department of Trade and Industry officially launched the consultation process on the National Strategic Reference Framework in London.  
Below are copies of the presentations from DTI, DEFRA and HMT: 
1. DTI Presentation 2 March 2006 (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation - 86.52kb) 
2. DEFRA presentation 2 March 2006 (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation - 92.67kb) 
3. HMT presentation 2 March 2006 (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation - 74.24kb) 
 
- ODPM presentation on the NSRF at a South West Cohesion workshop in September 2005: National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation - 347.13kb)

Convergence Programme 
 
There will be a Convergence Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The value of the programme is expected to be approximately a third greater than the current objective 1 (£350m).  
 
Partners have already started to consider the priorities that the new programme should tackle, linked to the revision of the county's economic strategy, "Cornwall Strategy and Action", led by the Cornwall Economic Forum.  
 
Competitiveness Programme 
 
The whole region (except for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly) will be eligible for the Competitiveness Programme. The South West Cohesion Framework will provide the priority areas for the programme. Funding will not be known until the allocation criteria between the English regions are agreed by the UK Government.  
 
Territorial Co-operation programme 
 
The whole region will be eligible for the Territorial Co-operation programme, which is aimed at supporting co-operation between European regions on issues of common interest (e.g. environment, transport, maritime, sustainable communities, tourism etc.). This programme is divided in three strands: cross-border, trans-national and inter-regional activities.

RELATED ACTIVITIES

- The South West Trans-national Cooperation group (SW-TCG) commissioned a study on the impact of the current INTERREG programme in the SW. This research assesses the impact of the current programme in the SW and makes a number of recommendations to make best use of the future programme. These recommendations will be used to strengthen the transnational/ territorial co-operation angle of Regional Framework. The Final Report (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 654.66kb) is now available. 
 
- "Cohesion Through Co-operation" - the South West UK Brussels Office and SWRDA organised a regional seminar on Territorial Co-operation in Taunton on 15th March 2006.  
Copies of some of the presentations are available: 
- Jo Talbot presentation on impact of INTERREG III in the SW (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation - 908.28kb) 
- Presentation Wioletta Dunin-Majewska on EU perspective (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation - 2119.68kb) 
- Presentation Phil McVey on national perspective (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation - 275.96kb)

FURTHER INFORMATION

Regular e-updates are sent to interested partners in the region and posted on this website. If you wish to be on the distribution list please contact Matthieu Havard