Valcárcel and Barroso: EU-budget en cohesieregels moeten snel worden goedgekeurd (en)
At the opening of the OPEN DAYS 2013, the Presidents of the Committee of the Regions, Ramon Luis Valcárcel, and of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso i, called on the European Council and Parliament to urgently finalise the adoption of the EU budget 2014-2020 as well as of the new rules for structural funds.
Referring to the timing of the on-going negotiations, CoR President Valcárcel stressed that, "The current economic and social situation does not allow for any delays in launching the new regional investment plan for growth and employment. We cannot afford being stuck in negotiations that risk becoming increasingly incomprehensible to most citizens. Any further delays a deal will expose regions to the risk of losing one year before launching new programmes".
Commenting on the possible final outcome, the CoR President remarked, “Over the past four years the Committee of the Regions has worked hard with the European Parliament to make regions’ and cities’ voice heard and shape cohesion policy reform. Some new elements could improve the effectiveness of regional growth strategies and the quality of funded projects”. Nonetheless, there are outstanding issues that are of serious concerns among EU regions and cities:
The suspension or cancellation of regional policy funding in case of non-respect of the Commission’s economic recommendations by a national government;
The establishment of a “performance reserve”;
The rules on capping levels for structural fund national allocations.
President Valcárcel pointed out that these measures are related to policy areas where it is mandatory to consult the CoR. The Committee is carefully monitoring and assessing developments and is prepared to consider using legal options offered by the Treaty of Lisbon in case its prerogatives are not respected.
President Barroso underlined the crucial contribution of regions. Addressing the Committee's members, he said, “You are European leaders. As locally elected politicians you help build Europe every day since the European Project is not a vertical construction. We are here to analyse things together and understand how we can make Europe stronger. Before the summer we agreed to invest €325 bn for cohesion and now we need to get it right to ensure that every Euro spent produces real results which are felt on the ground". President Barroso also invited regions and cities to "think outside the box making new efforts to innovate" before commenting that a new successful cohesion cannot be "business as usual".
The accent on innovation was shared by EU Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn i, who stressed the contribution a reformed cohesion policy will bring to EU competitiveness. Referring to the negotiations on the cohesion regulations package, Commissioner Hahn expressed his confidence in overcoming the main obstacles left on the way to the final adoption: “99% of the issues are already agreed, now we have to finalise the deal. We all agree that we need to start the implementation of the new cohesion policy as soon as possible. Significant progress has already been made in the negotiations on partnership agreements and operational programmes".
"I very much hope that the Commissioner's optimism on the negotiations is right. However, even in that case we would be at least six months late" said the chair of the EPP Group at the CoR Michael Schneider. He added: "We'll take a close look at how the new rules apply in order to avoid bureaucratic complexity that hampers programmes and overburdens beneficiaries. I propose that the European Commission regularly monitors the implementation processes of the new regulations jointly with Committee of the Regions".
According to the chair of the CoR PES Group, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, "The stalemate on macro-economic conditionality is now more about ideology than about common sense whilst negotiations are taking place behind closed doors and leading to a new culture of opacity in relation to structural funds. Europe urgently needs an open and transparent debate on the rules applicable to state aid for infrastructure projects co-funded with structural funds. This is really a burning issue on the ground."
In his intervention, Uno Silberg, chair of the CoR European Alliance Group, stressed that: "Sustainability and the very subsistence of rural areas in Europe should be central within cohesion policy as their decline would have devastating long-term consequences for the society as a whole. The European Alliance group firmly believes that a bottom-up approach and diversification and modernisation of the rural economy through territorial functional partnerships with neighbouring urban areas are the key for a successful cohesion."
The role of new sources of funding within the reformed cohesion policy was underlined by the chair of the CoR ALDE Group, Bas Verkerk: "We strongly support the concept of Financial Engineering Instruments as a means to make cohesion policy more effective and sustainable. In times of slow economic growth, they are vital and I will be urging the European Commission to explain clearly what changes have been introduced, to ensure that these instruments are used as widely and effectively as possible."
The impact of cohesion policy on the EU economies has been stressed by Gordon Keymer, president of the CoR ECR Group, who said that: "The 2014-2020 cohesion policy gives us another chance to light the burners of the EU economy and fire the drive for growth and lower unemployment."
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