EU General Affairs Council (Pre-Council Statement)

Mark Prisk Excerpts

Thursday 15th December 2011 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Mark Prisk)]

The General Affairs Council will take place in Brussels on 16 December 2011. The agenda will cover structural and cohesion funds. I will represent the UK.

The substantive agenda item will be a policy debate on the structural and cohesion funds for 2014-20.The Polish presidency has tabled three questions for discussion: whether the common strategic framework should be approved by the Council and the European Parliament, or adopted solely by the European Commission; whether country-specific recommendations or national reform programmes should provide a linkage between EU2020 goals and the development needs of regions and member states; and whether funds should be ring-fenced for specific objectives. There will also be an informal lunch which will look at whether both negative and positive incentives are necessary to ensure that funds deliver on EU2020 objectives.

The Government’s objective for the Council will be to ensure the funds contribute to addressing the priority areas to support growth and are delivered in a way consistent with member state’s broader economic strategies.