Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
highlights the role of interregional transfers as an insurance mechanism: restric-
tions on labor movement, and with them on access to public insurance systems,
will apply until 2011; at the same time, the new members would have gradual
access to structural funds during the period 2004-2007 whereas current recip-
ients would see their access reduced in a similar gradual fashion during the
same period. Thereafter, the share of transfers toward new members increases
significantly, allowing the Commission to redirect transfers to these new mem-
bers before the restrictions on mobility are finally lifted. Mobility restrictions
and interregional transfers operate jointly as mechanisms aimed at reducing
negative economic externalities: the former apply while the latter measures
are implemented and help activate local economies in backward areas, thereby
limiting the labor outflow from those areas.
The targeting of specific migrant minorities, such as Roma, within the pro-
grams funded via structural funds illustrates the logic further. The Roma pro-
vide an interesting case in that they are very mobile and particularly hard to
integrate socially and economically. Hence, if the notion of interregional trans-
fers as a tool to limit undesired population movements bears any truth, it should
be the case that efforts towards the social and economic integration of these
minorities in their countries of origin absorb an increasing share of resources,
particularly in those countries where groups such as the Roma are especially
sizable. The evidence on the use of structural funds in countries like Hungary or
Romania lends support to this conjecture. Indeed, the structural funds agenda
for the period 2007-2013 places particular emphasis on programs targeting
the social and economic incorporation of Roma. The ESF shall “reinforce the
social inclusion of disadvantaged people with a view to their sustainable inte-
gration in employment” (ESF Regulation 1081/2006). In practical terms, this
implies a significantly higher proportion of activities that target Roma, and an
attendant increase in the amount of resources devoted to them with respect to
the period 2000-2006. This is primarily due to the fact that the largest Roma
minorities are concentrated in countries such as Hungary or Romania that have
only recently joined the Union. The interesting fact lies in the reallocation of
effort towards minorities that are potentially very mobile around the Union.
Though data remain partial, one indicator is illustrative enough: in Hungary
and Romania, Roma minorities constitute the explicit goal of more than one
half of the initiatives sponsored by the structural funds (EU Roma Report 2010,
p.52).
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The activities funded focus on the promotion of education, vocational
training, employment, access to social services, and community development.
All these activities work to bolster economic progress and social networks in
underdeveloped areas, reducing the need for its inhabitants to seek welfare or
work opportunities elsewhere.
This overview of the politics behind major decisions concerning inter-
regional transfers suggests that an important motive behind these efforts
24
For a detailed breakdown of the different initiatives and the budgetary effort allocated to them,
see
EU Roma Report
, 2010, pp. 103-111.
