Although the Structural Funds are part of the global Regional Policy budget, the way they are spent is based on a complex system of shared responsibility between European Commission, Member States (national level) and Regions (local level).

In the rules set up by the Commission for current programming period (2007-2013) several important steps and documents are supporting the process of distribution of funds:

• The Commission defines the Community Strategic Guidelines on Cohesion Policy and its different objectives (Convergence, Competitiveness and regional Cooperation). This is the first pillar of the regional policy.

• Each Member State then prepares a National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), the second pillar, coherent with the Strategic Guidelines and defining the Member State strategy. Improving ICT and broadband access for territorial development could be one of the objectives of these NSRF

• Operational Programmes are the third pillar of regional policy. They present the priorities of European Regions as well as the way in which they will lead its implementation.

• After validation by the Commission the Regions have the task of implementing the programmes, I.e. selecting the thousands of projects and to monitor and assess them.

WP2 analysed regional strategies and operational programmes in Structural Funds programming for different European countries. The analysis allowed assessment and potential demand for ICT RT&D that should support the regional development of territories. It also permited to identify Regions and Regional Authorities that could benefit from the support of SFERA on the use of the Structural Funds to improve the situation of those regions through investment in ICT Research and Development.

For more information please visit:

• D2.1: REGIONS’ STRATEGIES & OPERATIONAL PROGRAMMES
• D2.2: SFERA Case Study Selection
• D2.3: Case Studies Report