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European Funds: a driving force for Regional Development
The Northern Netherlands is the European Union’s proven champion. In our region, every euro from the European Regional Development Fund generates 4.26 euros of investments.
The funds are invested effectively and provide plenty of innovative activity and employment. The Northern Netherlands helps Europe to achieve its goals. Strong clusters of innovative companies and leading knowledge institutions work together. The Northern Netherlands takes the lead in moving towards transition.
The EU can contribute to innovation and strong regional development by:
- Organising EU funds in such a way that they can be used for regional programmes as much as possible. European policies and investments will have the highestimpact and increase visibility when they are in line with the realities that citizens face as well as the realities of entrepreneurs and farmers
- Granting the regions more powers to enable them to work in an integrated target-oriented manner when distributing and implementing these funds. The Northern Netherlands wants to programme and implement the European Structural and Investment Funds ERDF, ESF, POP, Horizon and INTERREG itself. This should happen combined on a regional scale, so that we can work towards achieving European objectives in a regionally relevant way
- Focusing on implementing POP (Dutch Rural development Program under EAFRD) while having the reality of the farmer in mind. The Northern Netherlands wants to continue the regional implementation of POP
- Simplifying and reducing administrative costs and regulatory pressure
- Investing in innovation and the reinforcement of the social structure in border areas and areas that face depopulation
- Focusing on the largest task of the regional economy with regard to thedesign of the ESF fund. We see future-proofing the labour market and jobs as a major challenge. We can achieve this if we can link regional ESF funds to the Human Capital Agenda, which is one of the objectives of the ERDF fund. By using ESF for secondary vocational education we can focus particularly on educational needs in the North, while having economic opportunities in mind the opportunities of our economy in mind. Senior secondary vocational education can also be involved in innovative ERDF projects. In this way we can involve the entire educational chain in the North
- Making large funds such as Horizon Europe more accessible to SMEs.
Publications & downloads
SNN EU Funds after 2020 Position Paper (English)
Topics: Europe
Position Paper: A Clean Planet for Everyone
Topics: Circular Economy, Energy, Hydrogen, Mobility & Transport
Groningen, Fryslân and Drenthe. Three provinces in the Netherlands that form the Northern Netherlands region. And what a great European region it is! We have the space, innovative entrepreneurs and top-notch knowledge centres. Together, we find solutions for today’s regional, national and European challenges.