What Are The Implications Of Membership Of — страница 3

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shifted back towards the individual nation state between 1973 and 1975 (Cheshire et al. 1991). The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) was established at the end of 1973, with the principle of ‘additionality’ being incorporated into Community legislation for the first time. Although often sidestepped in the early years of its application (see for instance Walker 1991, the Times 1993 for evidence of tighter control in more recent years), this rule, which has provided a consistent backbone to EC regional policy (ibid), was intended to ensure that, while regions in need of assistance were still to be designated by national governments, EC aid would only be forthcoming when the country involved demonstrated a financial commitment to a particular project. Major reforms to

the ERDF occurred in 1979, 1984 and most recently in 1988. According to Cheshire et al. (1991), the overall effect of these reforms has been that “regional policy has been strengthened, funding has been increased, co-ordination (both different regional policy actions and regional policy with other Community policies) has been improved and, perhaps most significantly, a measure of responsibility for the initiation of action and for the formulation of policy has moved from a national to a Community level” (ibid, 282). The 1988 reform has been the most comprehensive so far. The scope of EC regional policy, however, remains severely limited. While funds available for regional spending via the ERDF have become more closely co-ordinated with other structural funding, administered

by the Social Fund and the structural guidance section of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and while total structural spending was doubled in the period 1989-93, such assistance in 1993 was still to account for just 25% of the total Community budget (EC 1991). While the ECU 14,200 million (plus some additional agricultural aid) that this represents is a significant quantity, compared to the other resource allocations, particularly those to the CAP, a policy which, incidentally, actually widens regional disparities, structural spending is still relatively slight (Cheshire et al. 1991). This must also be seen in light of the fact that the EC’s budget as a proportion of total GDP is very low indeed in comparison to the central budgets even of federal states; 1% for the EC

compared to 10-15% for Germany or Switzerland (ibid). Factors such as the restrained ability of the Community to award grants at its discretion due to the pre-allocation of 85% of Structural Funding to member states, and some inevitable degree of inefficiency in distribution procedures, as evidenced by the over-allocation of funds to high priority Objective 1 regions in the 1988 reforms (ibid), are further constraints on EC regional policy effectiveness. What, then, are the implications of EC regional policy for Britain? The most that can be realistically hoped for at present levels of Community funding, given its severely limited nature, would be for regional aid to go some way to restricting the growth of disparities between the most and least developed parts of the country.

While Merseyside, Northern Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland in particular were awarded significant redevelopment grants in 1993 (approximately £1,000 million each for Merseyside and Northern Ireland and £300 million for the Highlands (Bowditch and Faux 1993, Sherman 1993)), and while the rejuvenation of urban Liverpool would seem to be testimony to the effective concentration of both EC and British government efforts on urban regeneration, EC regional funding to Britain is not without its issues. While the government’s failure to secure EC grants to areas such as Devon and Cornwall, rural mid-Wales and South Yorkshire (Sherman 1993) is clearly indicative of constraints on Community Structural resources, much controversy has arisen concerning the principle of

additionality as regards Britain. In July 1991 the EC refused to grant over £100 million to depressed mining areas due to the Commission’s belief that the British government did not accept this principle (Walker 1991), while in October 1993 it was confirmed that £330 million of aid would be lost to Britain if the government did not allow an equivalent amount to be spent by local authorities (The Times 1993). The already limited power of EC Structural aid to redress the balance of British regional disparities likely to be worsened by progressive integration, then, may be constrained if the government fails to accept the rules of the Commission. To conclude, Britain’s membership of the European Union is a further step along the road to European integration, a road which,