Eurocommissaris Danuta Hübner (regionaal beleid) bezoekt Noord-Finland om regionaal programma 2007-2013 te bespreken (en)

Danuta Hübner i , European Commissioner for Regional Policy, starts a three-day visit to Northern Finland to discuss the region's new development strategy for 2007-2013 with local authorities and stakeholders. The region's strategy involves investment worth € 311 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The Commissioner will also visit innovative projects - including Santa Claus' village -- carried out in 2000-2006 with co-funding from the ERDF.

Ahead of her visit, Commissioner Hübner said: ' Northern Finland is as far north as you can go in the European Union, a region with a very harsh climate and a very sparse population. It has found really ingenious ways of creating innovative and competitive businesses with the help of European investment.' '

Commissioner Hübner will give two key note speeches: the first at the Regional Innovations Seminar in Rovaniemi on 28 February, and the second at the Seminar on Regional Structural Changes in Pyhätunturi on 29 February. She will meet local politicians, chairpersons of regional councils, as well as representatives of universities and companies.

Lappset Group in Rovaniemi: This company is the leading producer of playground equipment in Europe. It has benefited from €1.5 million from Cohesion policy, including ERDF and national co-funding. It created the first hi-tech playground for all ages, called 'SmartUs'. This includes an interactive computer screen and interactive grid. Users can play a variety of computer games on the screen by jumping from square to square on the grid. As users progress through different levels, the game speeds up, making it more physically demanding. There are now such playgrounds in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Romania, France, Portugal and Spain, as well as Finland.

Santa Claus' Village:. Santa Claus Village is a hub of tourist activity co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The village is also a gigantic post office which handles the letters sent by children from all over the world. As an accompanying measure, the centre for on-going training at the University of Lapland offers a course for those who want to become members of the Christmas personnel. The ERDF also funds a project (€150,000) which seeks to export `Finnish Christmas': about 20 food and events businesses in the region have flourished as a result.

Cold-climate and arctic technology: The Commissioner will also see the cold-climate and the arctic technology sector, the growing mining and excavation industry in Lapland, and some interesting virtual education solutions such as the Envi project, which provides online training for health care professionals.

The new Northern Finland programme for 2007-2013, co-funded by the ERDF,was adopted by the Commission on 27 September 2007. It aims to contribute significantly to the objectives of the Lisbon strategy on growth and jobs with considerable support for research, innovation, and knowledge economy. The programme aims to create 11 000 jobs and 1500 new companies.

Over seven years, the Northern Finland region will receive € 311 million from the ERDF, of which € 173 million is a special allocation for sparsely populated areas (representing €35 per inhabitant per year). Together with the national and estimated private contribution, total investment comes to € 1.1 billion over seven years. The region will also receive assistance from the European Social Fund (ESF) via the Mainland Finland ESF programme and the Rural Development Fund (EAFRD) though the Rural Development programme for Finland.

For further information on the Northern Finland ERDF programme for 2007-2013, see the corresponding memo: MEMO/07/434

In total, Finland will receive some € 1.7 billion of EU resources from Cohesion policy 2007-2013. In 2000-2006, the country received € 2.09 billion.

Further information on European regional policy is available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/index_en.htm .