European Structural Funds are a series of financial tools set up with the explicit purpose of reducing regional disparities across the EU in terms of income, wealth and opportunity. Scotland’s Structural Fund Programmes for 2014-2020 consists of 2 programme areas: Highlands and Islands (with a GDP between 75% and 90% of the EU average), and the rest of Scotland which is made up of the other three NUTS II (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics3) regions (North Eastern Scotland, Eastern Scotland and South Western Scotland) all of whom have a GDP above 90% of the EU average. The Highlands and Islands has been designated as a transition region and the rest of Scotland as a more developed region. The categorisation of the two areas has an impact on the type of projects that the funds can be used to support.
