Fund for the Enhancement of the Economic Structure (FES) revisited

Utrecht, 20 July 2010. Up to now, the resources available from the Fund for the Enhancement of the Economic Structure (FES) depended on gas prices and were then allocated in an annual procedure. In order to make investments less dependent on natural gas prices, the conditions of FES will now be revised. There will be a fixed allocation of resources in the future, with an annual minimum of € 1.7 billion in the fund.

Revenues from the exploitation of natural gas reserves in the Dutch soil are invested in the long-term development of the national economic structure by a fund. This is the "Fund for the Enhancement of the Economic Structure" (FES). FES projects are of strategic macroeconomic importance. They are related to one of the following domains:

• traffic & transportation,
• environment & sustainability,
• knowledge & innovation,
• spatial planning.

Resources from FES have been allocated at the level of ministerial departments. The INNO-Policy TrendChart of 2009 (Deuten, 2009) comments: “These investments were done in a rather ad hoc fashion, not guided by a long-term strategy for knowledge and innovation, and bypassing the traditional funding allocation (and quality control) mechanisms.”

In addition, until now, the scope of resources to be made available was decided annually, depending on the gas prices, implying a high volatility of the scope of resources. In order to make investments into the economic structure less dependent on natural gas prices, the conditions of FES will be revised. In a ‘Memorie van Toelichting: FES’ (brief note on shifts in the regulative framework) it was specified that there would be a fixed allocation of resources in the future. The fixed level is based on the interest on the value of the natural gas mass. The minimum means to be made available every year will be € 1,7 billion. Furthermore, it is being considered to add new strategic themes: sustainable energy(-management), water management, urban development and agriculture. However, the main criteria for the selection of projects remain the same: projects must be of national importance and have the potential to strengthen the national economic structure.