European Regional Development Fund
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European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is the financial instrument of the European Cohesion Policy for the 2007-2013 period. ERDF is like the European Social Fund a structural fund which represents part of the Community budget. Drawing on structural funds is implemented according to the principle of shared responsibility between the European Commission and the Member States authorities. For the 2007-2013 period Slovenia prepared two operational programmes, Operational Programme for Strengthening Regional Development Potentials (OP SRDP) and Operational Programme of Environmental and Transport Infrastructure Development (OP ETID) for which the ERDF financial instrument is used for the purpose of Objective 1 (“Convergence”) of the European Cohesion Policy. The ERDF is also the financial mechanism for Objective 3 (“European Territorial Cooperation”).
The European Regional Development Fund objective is strengthening economic and social cohesion and to offer assistance in eliminating the gravest development imbalances of the regions. ERDF thus contributes to reducing the gap between the levels of development of various regions. These are the regions which have the most limited possibilities including the rural and city areas, regressive industrial regions, areas with geographic and natural obstacles such as islands, mountainous areas, sparsely populated areas and border regions. ERDF implements Community priorities for strengthening competitiveness and innovation, creativity and preservation of permanent jobs and ensuring sustainable development.
