Regional and Structural Policy is one of the dominant policies in the framework of the economic policy of the EU. This policy (also known as policy of economic and social cohesion) was created as a merger of regional, social and part of agricultural policy. The merger took place in order to improve the coordination of all the areas concerned. This policy is considered to be one of the most important policies of the EU and therefore more than one third of the Union´s total budget is allocated on it.

Structural Policy of the EU supports and aims at such activities, which in effect lead to higher economic and social cohesion of all Member States as well as the Candidate Countries. The effort is focused on the lessening of the differences between the individual regions of EU, which means that the major part of the aid comes to the structurally affected regions, islands and rural parts of the Union.

Following the Third report on economic and social cohesion of the EU (February 2004) the European Commission adopted the proposals for a new legislation regarding the reform of the cohesion policy in June 2004. The objective of the reform is in the years 2007  2013 to concentrate structural support more on strategic objectives of the EU, which were defined among others in the Lisbon Strategy.

The EU Member were asked to execute reforms to which they agreed in the framework of the Lisbon process and at the same time new measures were defined, both on the level of the EU and the Member States, which will enable the fulfilment of the Strategy.

As far as the main macroeconomic directions are concerned the member states should ensure economic stability, secure economic sustainability, support effective allocation of resources, support higher cohesiveness between macroeconomic and structural policies. For the microeconomic sphere it is proposed to enlarge and intensify internal market, secure open and competitive markets, create more favourable entrepreneurial environment, promote entrepreneurial culture and create an environment supporting small and medium—sized enterprises, increase and improve investments into research and development, facilitate innovations and implementation of information and communication technologies.

Objectives of the Regional Policy in 2007— 2013

1.            Convergence: support of growth and employment in the least developed parts of the EU

2.            Regional Competitiveness and Employment: for regions and municipalities that support economic changes in the industrial, urban and rural areas

3.            European Territorial Cooperation: support of the balanced development on the territory of the EU.

Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovations 2007 — 2013 (OPEI), which follows the Operational programme Industry and Enterprise 2004 — 2006 (OPIE), is one the tools to fulfil the strategic goals of the EU and will be implemented under the Objective Convergence, which support regions with GDP lower than 75% of the EU average.

OPEI is financed form the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) with a special focus on:

• Modernization and diversification of the economic structure of the Member States and regions
• Extension of the production base and improvement of the infrastructure; environmental protection

Important part of OPEI is support of entrepreneurial environment in the Czech Republic as the key attribute of further successful development of Czech economy. Its global goal is thus higher competitiveness of the industry and services sectors, development of enterprise, maintenance of the attractivity of the Czech Republic, its regions and cities for foreign investors, support of innovations, stimulation of demand for the R&D results, commercialization of these results, support of the entrepreneurial spirit and economic growth based on the knowledge stemming from introduction of new technologies and innovative products including new communication and information technologies.

For financing the aid from the EU structural funds in the period 2007 — 2013 the mono—fund principle applies. It means that the support provided within one operational programme will be financed from one fund only. In the case of the OPEI which will be realised within the "Convergence” objective and will apply on the entire territory of the Czech Republic except the Capital City of Prague it will be concretely the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The principle of "one fund for one programme” will be accompanied with a possibility to finance up to 10 % the activities belonging under a different fund under the condition that these activities are directly related to the programming operations (so called cross—financing).

The participation of economic subjects in the programmes supported from the structural funds of the EU must comply with the EU’s rules of state aid. Also the principles of horizontal policy of the EU must be respected and obeyed — like securing sustainable development or observing the conditions of environmental protection, support of equal opportunities, support of information society and balanced regional development.