Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- 1 A new Germany in Europe?
- 2 Unification and “Germany in Europe”
- 3 Continuity in trade and internal market
- 4 Mixed outcomes in energy and environment
- 5 Change in competition policy
- 6 Change in structural funds and the CAP
- 7 A new Germany in Europe
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Change in structural funds and the CAP
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- 1 A new Germany in Europe?
- 2 Unification and “Germany in Europe”
- 3 Continuity in trade and internal market
- 4 Mixed outcomes in energy and environment
- 5 Change in competition policy
- 6 Change in structural funds and the CAP
- 7 A new Germany in Europe
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
After 1990, German objectives and actions changed discernibly and officially in two EC/EU policy areas, the structural funds and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). New government positions in Brussels, which began with adjustments to federal policies, came about in response to the profoundly novel regional and agricultural challenges thrown up by unification and its aftermath. In each case, the eastern Land governments were at the forefront of pressure for changes in federal policy, and were able to utilize the access and information granted them under formal policymaking arrangements at the national and supranational levels to good effect.
Structural funds
Both the European Community and its member governments administer programs designed to achieve a spatially balanced pattern of economic development. Typically, these programs designate assisted areas within which applicants are eligible for capital grants, soft loans, accelerated depreciation allowances, and tax concessions for business, as well as job training for workers and infrastructure grants to municipalities. There existed three main programs at the European level prior to Maastricht, which together constituted the EC structural funds: the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF), and the Guidance Section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF).
In West Germany, federal regional policy targeted two types of problem region: underdeveloped rural areas, and areas vulnerable to or suffering from the decline of a dominant industry.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- German Unification and the Union of EuropeThe Domestic Politics of Integration Policy, pp. 152 - 189Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999