4-5 September European Parliament

STRUCTURAL funding for regional and social programmes in the EU is far too complex and must be simplified, MEPs declared. Although the Parliament approved the Union's decision to spend 141 billion ecu between 1994 and 1999 on such schemes, it attacked the EU's Structural Funds for being too complex, poorly targeted and seriously underspent. MEPs were especially critical of the Commission's inability to keep track of the money once it had been sent to the member states. They also criticised the lack of parliamentary involvement in deciding how the funds should be allocated between the Union's various regions, despite the fact that MEPs share budgetary powers with EU governments.