ABSTRACT
The principal direct instrument of Community regional policy is the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), one of the EC’s three Structural Funds; the other two are the European Social Fund and the EAGGF Guidance Section. The ERDF was created in March 1975 (Regulation (EEC) No 724/75) following the first enlargement of the Community in 1973, and was partly a result of that enlargement. The accession of the UK, which already had a well-developed regional policy, and of Ireland with its relatively backward agricultural economy, provided an additional impetus. The main purpose of the ERDF was ‘to correct the principal imbalances within the Community resulting in particular from agricultural preponderance, industrial change and structural unemployment’. Initially, the ERDF was financed at 258 million ECUs, approximately 4.8 per cent of the Community’s budget. This sum has increased substantially to 4.5 billion ECUs by the late 1980s, in part reflecting the further enlargement of the Community with the accession of Spain, Portugal and Greece, and also the increased emphasis now put upon regional issues and problems in the Community.
