Programme preparations
With conclusion of negotiations in the European Council on the EU budget and Structural Funds, preparation of future Structural Fund programmes have begun in Scotland, as they have in other parts of the UK.
The Executive's initial plans for taking forward programme planning were set out at the June 2005 meeting of the Scottish Executive European Structural Funds Forum, which is chaired by the Deputy Minister for Enterprise & Lifelong Learning, Allan Wilson MSP.The Forum papers can be found on our Information and Publications pages.
Stakehoders Events
Our plans have since been developed and discussed with a wide range of Structural Fund partners particularly through a series of stakeholder events that were held throughout Scotland in December and January. The main purpose of these events was to obtain a wide range of views on potential priorities for future Structural Funds programmes and the most effective ways in which future funds can be delivered. A report of these events, Structural Funds post 2006 - Stkeholders' Views, is now available.
Future Delivery
One area of particular interest at the stakeholders events was the future delivery of Structural Funds in Scotland post-2006. The Executive has made it clear that, given the significantly reduced levels of funding to Scotland, it sees reform of the current system as a necessity. Independent research commissioned from Hall Aitken economic research consultants undertook an analysis of Structural Funds delivery in other EU Member States and assessed whether elements of these models could be used to reform the Scottish system. Details of their findings can be found in their report Making Every Euro Count.
Value Added Group
As part of our preparations for developing new Structural Funds programmes, we set up a short-life internal working group to draw lessons on the value added of Structural Funds from the current programmes. The Value Added Group was drawn from the European Structural Funds Division as well as from the Programme Management Executives, drawing on the shared long-standing experience in implementing programmes. 'Adding Value, Keeping Value', Report of the Scottish Structural Funds Value Added Group details the findings of this group.
Programme Drafting
The next step in the process is drafting of the Operational Programme documents (OPs) which will be undertaken over the next few months.
Taking on board feedback from the stakeholder events European Structural Funds Division (ESFD) officials are in the process of refining draft programme priorities to present to Ministers. Once Ministers have decided upon these priorities, we will then begin drafting the OPs.
Public consultation and Strategic Environmental Assessment will then be undertaken from Spring 2006. Following this consultation, and any resulting amendments to the documents, OPs will be submitted to the Commission by Summer in the hope that the Commission's approval will be achieved in time to allow the programmes to commence from 1 January 2007.
Programme drafting will be guided by a number of key documents. The most important of these is the European Commission's Community Strategic Guidelines (CSGs), the overall guiding document for 2007-2013 Structural Funds programmes, along with the draft Structural Funds Regulations which will provide the detail of what Structural Funds can be spent on.
At UK level the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) will set out the broad strategy for future programmes and outline how they will compliment the Commission's CSGs . The draft Framework includes a separate chapter for Scotland with an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Scottish economy and the proposed priority areas for future Structural Funds spending. The UK NSRF, including Scottish chapter, is currently available for UK wide public consultation until 22 May 2006 and can be accessed from the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) website.