Bauza seeks increased European funding for the Balearics

The first meeting yesterday morning was with Danuta Huebner, president of the Regional Development Commission, one that was part of current and ongoing negotiations in respect of future structural funds that are considered to be “crucial” for regional development policy in Europe and especially for the Balearics.

This meeting was a follow-on from the government's statement to the Council of Europe on 8 February this year that particular account should be taken of the Balearics' situation and that there should be specific provisions for the islands.

The second meeting was with the Budget and Financial Programming Commissioner, Janusz Lewandowski, to whom President Bauzá emphasised, as he had to Ms. Huebner, that there is a need to increase the maximum limit of the rates of co-financing established under the general regulation covering European funding.

A further matter that was discussed was the elimination of the maximum distance criterion of 150 kilometres which determines the extent that regions at the so-called NUTS3 level are eligible for cross-border co-operation programmes. (NUTS means “nomenclature of territorial units for statistics” and is used for framing regional policies; the Balearics is at NUTS3 level, i.e. small regions with priority objectives.)
The president argued that this maximum distance should not apply to island regions which, and cutting through the jargon, would result in an improvement to transport connections and to the granting of a specific budget for tourism from Regional Policy funds.

Also on the agenda were an initiative to address youth unemployment, one which would look at criteria for allocating budgets to combat this unemployment, specific arrangements for the agricultural sector, and the Horizon 2020 programme.

The president spoke with Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, about simplifying procedures for research contained in the Horizon programme and so investigating opportunities for European funding for research and innovation in island regions such as the Balearics.

Specifically, the president highlighted research applications for innovation in education and business and for linking tourism quality with innovation as a means of improving the overall competitiveness of the islands' tourism sector.