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2007-2013 : A New Generation of European Programmes

1. The Intra-Community Programmes
2. The Programmes of External Cooperation
3. The Structural FundsThe financial perspectives of the European Union that have been adopoted in April of 2006 mark the priorities of the European Union for the period of 2007-2013. Based upon it, the European Commission was able to prepare all new financial programmes for this period with revised budgets and renewed priorities. The general spirit of the the financial programmes remains similar to the one for the 2000-2006 period but more focus will now be put on the aspects of competition, innovation and employment. In order to achieve this objective, certain evolutions are scheduled for 2007 in the three categories of programmes: intra-community programmes, programmes of external cooperation and programmes financed by the Structural Funds.

The Intra-Community Programmes
A great majority of the existing programmes are restructured by the new financial programme. The focus will be put on innovation. A new programme for innovation and competition will be put into effect, re-grouping a series of programmes in favor of new technologies, SMEs or environmental technologies. This regroupement of programmes is not only limited to the domain of innovatioin as is demonstrated by the programme PROGRESS, which builds upon the different instruments of helping social policies, employment, education and the training programme "Lifelong Learning".

The 7th Financial Programme (FP) for Research and Development
The FP always occupies a position apart from all of the other funding programmes. The budget which will be a lot higher (+75% between 2006-2013) will be sensibly different from the previous one. It will be structured by 4 specific programmes and its themes will be re-organised. Under the four pillars of: cooperation, ideas, capacity and personnel, we can expect many sub-programmes.

The Programmes of External Cooperation
The European Union intervenes in practically all geographical zones of the planet, either in the form of development aid or for cooperation with the developping countries. Promotion of democracy, economic exchange, support for the civil society, university exchanges, technological transfers, protection of the environment-the themes will cover a large scope of subject areas. In 2007, the programmes will be re-organised according to a theme (programmes of environment and energy, for example) or on a geographical area (neighboring countires, pre-acceeding ones…).

The Structural FundsCalled upon to support the Lisbon Strategy, the new generation of structural funds will also be reoriented towards innovation and the support for competitioin and employment. The programmes of community innitiative (Urban II, Leader +, Interreg III and Equal) will disappear and will be reintegrated into the themes of the operational programmes at the national and regional levels. The financial instruments FEDER and FSE will be substituted and will support the actions relevant to the 3 objectives of: convergence, regional competition, employment or even European territorial cooperation. The funds in favour of the fishing sector (FEP) and of rural developpment (FEADER) will not longer be part of the structural funds.

The Eurofunding guide 2007 proposes an overview of these changes in all that concerns European funding programmes for the new period.