Fuente: © European Union
http://europa.eu.int

EU: Spain – Operational Programme 2007-2013: Madrid

/noticias.info/ 1. Operational Programme 2007-2013 for Madrid – programme co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Regional Competitiveness and Employment objective


2. General information

On 12 December 2007 the European Commission approved an Operational Programme for the region of Madrid (Spain) for the period 2007-2013.

This Operational Programme comes under the Regional Competitiveness and Employment objective and has a total budget of about 694 million euros. The financing provided by the Community from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is some 337 million euros, representing about 1.0% of total EU investment in Spain in connection with the cohesion policy for 2007-2013.

3. Purpose and aim of the programme

The strategy of the Operational Programme is based primarily on:

* regional issues highlighted by an identification and analysis of the region’s potential;
* the gains achieved during the previous stages of the Community programme;
* the Community’s strategic guidelines and the national strategic framework establishing the principles for the allocation of European funding.

The region of Madrid has decided to put research, production and dissemination of innovation, access to and dissemination of information and knowledge, promotion of environmentally-friendly urban transport and urban planning at the core of its strategy for sustainable and socially integrated development. The overall aim is to enhance the competitiveness of the region as a whole.

The nature of the industrial fabric of the region - characterised by highly specialised local production systems, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and concentrations of public research structures - means that the focus must be on reinforcing research and innovation capacity so as to boost competitiveness. To this end, the programme aims to improve mechanisms for the transfer of knowledge between public research centres and enterprises so as to help the region to better exploit its full potential

The Operational Programme also aims to contribute significantly to achieving the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy, with considerable support for research, technology transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship. The programme will aim to provide better provision and accessibility of environmentally-friendly transport services by extending a metro line to cope with the strong population growth, while another action will aim at boosting efficiency and energy co-generation.

In addition, the programme will involve actions to promote sustainable urban development which is of fundamental significance because of the population changes in the region.

4. Expected impact of the investment

The expected results of the programme may be summarised as follows:

* 280 new jobs;
* 3 100 R&D projects co-financed;
* 730 million euros generated in the private sector in the field of R&D.

5. Priorities

The Operational Programme has four priorities:

Priority 1: Knowledge-based economy, innovation and business development [about 61.6% of total investment]

This priority, focusing on the promotion of research, innovation and the development and dissemination of technologies, will be achieved by strengthening and networking the existing resources in the region and by improving these resources. Special attention will be paid to research programmes, in close cooperation with enterprises, universities and research centres, for the development and dissemination of technologies with a positive impact on the environment, as well as to reinforcing productive zones of regional interest and encouraging job creation and skills development.

The programme also aims to promote the growth of SMEs by developing their innovativeness to allow them to open up new markets in the context of globalisation.

Priority 2: Energy resources and transport services [about 17.4% of total investment]

The aim of this priority is to promote the production and use of renewable energy and to improve access to environmentally-friendly transport services.

This priority will co-finance projects for the co-generation of electricity and for the extension of the metro network to a very run-down district, and it will aim to reduce the adverse effects of traffic congestion, cut noise and air pollution and improve energy consumption.

Priority 3: Sustainable urban development [about 20.8% of total investment]

The aim of the actions of this priority is to help to:

* implement integrated urban projects;
* preserve the natural and cultural heritage;
* improve tourism and cultural services;
* develop cultural facilities.

Priority 4: Technical assistance [about 0.2% of total investment]

Technical assistance will make it possible to co-finance activities relating to management, monitoring, organisation evaluation, information and communication. notas_de_prensa_archivo