Cornish translation available soon

Step 1. What is Objective One?

Introduction
Objective One is one of three programmes set up to help reduce differences in social and economic conditions within the European Union. (These three funding programmes are the biggest area of European spending after the Common Agricultural Policy.)

Of the three, Objective One is the highest priority designation for European aid and is targeted at areas where prosperity, measured in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head of population, is 75% or less of the European average.

Northern Ireland was the first part of the UK to obtain Objective One funding in 1989-93. Merseyside and the Highlands & Islands of Scotland joined it in 1994-99.

How much money will there be for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly?
The Objective One programme contains investment worth over £300 million - the exact amount is not definite because the sum awarded was in the Euro and the precise final figure will depend on exchange rates.

In addition, the final sum of European money will have to be matched with the same amount of UK money (through grants from various public bodies) and over £120 million from the private sector.

Other Objective One regions in the UK and Europe
The other regions of the UK currently designated as Objective One areas are West Wales & The Valleys, South Yorkshire and Merseyside.

Including the UK, there are currently a total of 57 regions within EU member states with Objective One status. These regions include the whole of East Germany, all Greece, much of Spain, some of France's remote overseas territories, southern Italy and Sardinia, part of Eire, a region in Eastern Austria, most of Portugal, and northern parts of Finland and Sweden.

Full details and maps of all Objective One areas (plus other funding programmes) can be found through the website www.inforegio.cec.eu.int

Where does the money come from?
All Objective One money comes from four European budgets, known as Structural Funds, set up to provide grant aid to member countries.

The four funds contributing to Objective One, and the proportions they will provide of the total European funding, are:

European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) - 60.4%
European Social Fund (ESF) - 20.3%
European Agricultural Guidance & Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) - 15.9%
Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG) - 3.4%
The first of these Structural Funds was set up in 1958 and the UK began to benefit from them when it joined the Common Market in 1975. Between 1989 and 1993, the UK received around £3.8 billion in Structural Fund money.

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