Further Information : Consultation
Public Consultation
The Scottish Executive undertook public consultation on the draft Operational Programmes for Structural Funds in Scotland for the 2007-2013 period. This consultation sought views on the draft Operational Programmes, particularly on the proposed priorities, delivery arrangements and financial allocations. This Consultation concluded in January 2007.
The Summary of the Consultation Responses and the Executive's response to the points raised are available from the Scottish Government European Structural Funds website.
Detailed Responses to the Public Consultation on the 2007-2013 Structural Funds Programmes can also be downloaded from the same site. These include the individual written responses to consultation and summary notes of the workshops that were held in December 2006.
European Commission
The Operational Programmes have been developed to take account of the new EU Community Strategic Guidelines (CSG), the overall strategic document for 2007-2013 Structural Funds programmes, and a package of Structural Funds regulations, which provide the detail of what Structural Funds can be spent on.
The CSG and the Regulations were agreed by Member States recently and are available from the European Commission's DG Regio
UK National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF)
The programmes have also been developed on the basis of responses to the earlier consultation on the UK National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), which provides the overall strategic framework for implementing the Community Strategic Guidelines into UK Structural Funds programmes. The consultation on the NSRF, which contains a chapter on Scotland, closed on 22 May 2006.
European & External Relations Committee of the Scottish Parliament
The European & External Relations Committee of the Scottish Parliament held an Inquiry on the Executive's plans for future Structural Funds programmes which reported in June 2006. A report of the Committee's inquiry and submitted evidence, including the Scottish Executive's response, is available from the Scottish Parliament website
Stakeholders
The programmes were also developed on the basis of wider consultation with key Scottish stakeholders over the course of 2006. In particular a series of stakeholder events were held by the Scottish Executive at the turn of 2005/2006 to discuss initial proposals.
As part of this consultation process the Scottish Executive sought views on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programme for Lowlands & Uplands Scotland to assess the potential environmental effects of the ERDF programmes.
The SEA involved the preparation of an environmental report in which the likely significant effects on the environment of implementing the programme, and reasonable alternatives taking into account the objectives and geographical scope of the plan or programme, are identified, described and evaluated.
Download : SEA environmental report for Lowlands & Uplands ERDF Programmes (Nov 2006)
The Scottish Executive sought the public's view on the following aspects of the report:
- the environmental baseline for the regions (and the trends over the programming period)
- the assessment of the environmental effects of the programmes and,
- the proposed approaches to mitigating those effects.
The public consultation concluded in January 2007.
The Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) Statements have now been published. The SEA Statements describe the process of appraisal through which environmental protection and sustainable development have been considered for the new Programmes. The Statements also describe how the findings of the earlier Environmental Reports have been taken into account in the development of the respective Programmes.
Download : SEA Statement for the approved Lowlands & Uplands Scotland ERDF Operational Programme for 2007-2013 (Mar 2007)
An initial screening of the broad programme priorities concluded that a full environmental assessment was not necessary for the European Social Fund (ESF) programmes.
