Danuta Hübner, Commissioner for Regional Policy, today visits Sardinia at the invitation of Mr Renato Soru, President of the Region. Her visit marks the start of the region's new Cohesion Policy programmes, which put innovation and combating climate change at the top of the agenda. She will visit projects set up with EU co-funding, and meet regional government and council officials, as well as representatives of civil society.
'I welcome the way in which the region has taken on board new priorities for this programming period: now it is playing the innovation card to boost jobs and growth, as well as planning projects to counter climate change,' the Commissioner said ahead of her visit.
Sardinia's new programme for 2007-13, with EU investment worth EUR 681 million, will focus primarily on innovation (43%), rather than on infrastructure, as was the case for the previous period. A third of the investment available will be dedicated to meeting the challenge of climate change, and is intended to achieve a 26% decrease in carbon emissions by 2015. The focus is on renewable energies and energy efficiency, and sustainable transport (upgrading of regional rail and port systems, clean urban transport modes). Sardinia aims to provide broadband access for every school under a priority entitled “Information Society”.
Project visits
The Commissioner will visit the Science Park at Pula , opened in 2003 with EU co-funding. It now hosts 50 research institutes and companies that employ 500 people in fields such as Information Technology, biomedicine, bioinformatics and nanotechnologies (ERDF contribution: € 51 million). She will also visit the former Buggerru coalfield, now a cultural and tourism area (ERDF contribution: €1.38 million).
