Press Release: European Commission reaches agreement with North Rhine-Westphalia on the new Objective 2 Structural Fund programme for the period 2007-2013

At a ceremony in Düsseldorf on 12 June 2007 the Commissioner for Regional Policy, Danuta Hübner, in the presence of the Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Christa Thoben, announced that a political agreement had been reached on the EU Structural Fund programme for North Rhine-Westphalia for the period 2007-2013. Commissioner Hübner expressed her satisfaction at the fact that it had been possible to finalise the NRW Structural Fund programme for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in only a few months. She welcomed the innovative approach of the programme, which will allocate a large proportion of its resources through competitions and support NRW’s cluster strategy, thus setting the tone for improving the quality of Structural Fund assistance in Germany. Formal adoption of the programmes by the Commission will follow in the next few weeks.