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A Platform for Competitiveness & Growth

Ireland?s Southern & Eastern Region is currently preparing its Regional Operational Programme for 2007-2013, having successfully used its Objective 1 status to lay the foundations for future competitiveness and growth.

The Southern and Eastern Region is one of Ireland?s two NUTS IIregions and incorporates four of the five cities in the State(Dublin, Cork, Limerick & Waterford) as well as thetraditionally strong agricultural areas in the East and South ofthe country. The Region has experienced strong growth in recentyears. In the period 1996 to 2002, the Region?s GDP grew by animpressive 150% and currently stands at 149.2% of the EU25average.

This rapid growth has brought its own challenges, however,placing considerable strains on infrastructure and services andleading to greater demands for investment in areas such as housing,water supply, sanitary services, roads, public transport,telecommunications, education and energy.

Since 2000 the Southern and Eastern Regional Assembly has beenworking to address these issues, largely through its role inmanaging the implementation of a ?5.3 billion Regional OperationalProgramme, which includes a significant Structural Funds component.This Programme, which will shortly come to a close, made asignificant contribution to the economic and social development ofthe Region over the 2000-2006 period, focusing on measures andsub-measures under the broad priorities of Local Infrastructure,Local Enterprise, Agriculture and Rural Development and SocialInclusion and Childcare.

The Regional Assembly is now preparing the Regional OperationalProgramme for the period 2007-2013, under the Competitiveness &Employment Objective.

This Programme will be smaller in scale than the 2000-2006Programme (as the Region no longer qualifies as Objective 1), butwill also be more strategically focused on key Community prioritiesstemming from the Lisbon and Gothenburg Councils.

At the same time, the Regional Assembly is also activelypreparing for the new Territorial Cooperation Objective. TheAssembly takes over as the Managing Authority for the newIreland-Wales Programme, which it is now preparing, and from 2007,the Assembly?s headquarters in Waterford will be the location ofthe new Secretariat. The Region will continue to play an activepart in the North West Europe Programme and will also be involvedin the Atlantic Area and the new Northern Periphery TransnationalProgrammes. The Region also continues to be a beneficiary under theexisting Interreg and Interact Programmes.

While the Southern & Eastern Region will continue to focuson key infrastructural and service requirements during the2007-2013 period, the Region is now in a much stronger position tomeet the many economic and social challenges of the future. Itwill, therefore, use the opportunity of Structural Funds support inthe 2007-2013 period to work with EU partners to promote regionalresearch and innovation, to foster a new sustainable developmentethic, and generally to strengthen the Region?s competitiveness andattractiveness. A priority for the region will also be to ensurethat Ireland?s National Spatial Strategy is fully implemented andthat future economic growth is more spatially balanced.