EU regions and EC President: investment for growth and better regulation must be Europe's top priorities
President Juncker: "Local and regional authorities are natural allies in delivering growth and social policies"
"Regions and cities are on your side to bridge the gap between Europe and citizens through bold initiatives such as the EU Investment Plan and the migration agenda". These opening words by the President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Markku Markkula, launched a debate with the European Commission's President, Jean-Claude Juncker i, on the EU's political priorities for the coming years.
President Juncker and local leaders discussed the key challenges currently facing Europe, agreeing that the absolute priority is to deliver new jobs and sustainable growth. "Now the European Commission, European Parliament and the Council are in agreement on the legislation, the EU Investment Plan can be launched and the CoR is a key partner. Regions and cities have now the right and duty to present new projects". This call was echoed by President Markkula who recalled the joint action plan launched by the CoR with the European Investment Bank to help regions and cities benefit from the new investment tool. The CoR is also supporting its delivery by pooling together regional development banks and other institutional investors.
The distinct role and scope of the Plan and of European structural funds were further clarified in the debate. "Simplification, better absorption of EU funds and synergies between cohesion policy and the Juncker Plan are crucial challenges in the cooperation with the EU Regional Commissioner Corinna Creţu" highlighted President Markkula.
President Juncker also stressed that the Investment Plan should be accompanied by concrete progress on budgetary consolidation and structural reforms. "This does not mean the European social state will come under attack. Quite the opposite: we believe that current social policies are underdeveloped and for this reason the Commission will launch new initiatives on the social dimension of the single market and monetary union." he announced.
The debate highlighted the strategic role of the completion and interconnection of Europe's digital, energy, transport and capital markets, a process with huge growth potential. Additionally, the challenge of improving the quality of EU legislation was discussed and it was made clear that there was a need to find the right balance between overregulation and the absence of common rules to compete and grow together.
Following the discussion, members of the CoR adopted their priorities for 2015-2020 setting up five key pillars for the coming years: creating jobs and sustainable growth in cities and regions to provide a better quality of life for citizens; the territorial dimension of EU legislation; a simpler, more connected Europe; stability and cooperation within and outside the European Union; and creating a Europe of the citizens.
POSITIONS
Michael Schneider , President of the CoRs' EPP Group: "We want to help make the Juncker plan a success, mobilising our expertise in fields such as public-private partnerships and cross-border cooperation. At the same time we should ensure that the key goals of EU policies for growth are achieved avoiding excessive administrative burdens and bureaucracy. With regards to cohesion policy, we all want to prevent any misuse of funds but controls cannot end up increasing micromanagement and formalistic procedures".
Catiuscia Marini , President of the CoRs' PES Group: "The drop in investments due to the crisis was even worse for regions because of the impact of the Stability Pact at national level. To address this dramatic situation, it is crucial that the European Fund for Strategic Investments is complementary to structural funds and that the top-down approach followed by the EIB is revisited by promoting an active role for regions and cities".
Bas Verkerk, President of the CoRs' ALDE Group: "For our group the key priority is the EU urban agenda. We all know that new economy, growth and innovation happen in the cities. If we want to achieve our targets on sustainable growth we need to put the money where our mouth is and invest more on cities. The current 5% threshold for the European Regional Development Fund allocations on urban development is clearly not enough".
Stanislaw Szwabski President of the CoRs' EA Group: "When it comes to external relations Europe should speak with a strong voice and better implement enlargement policies. Our neighbours should be given better support to develop democracy in their countries. Slowing down this process will increase their problems and indifference towards the EU integration project. More solidarity is needed. We are therefore in favour of an EU solidarity tax to be introduced with a revised Lisbon Treaty".
Gordon Keymer , President of the CoRs' ECR Group: "We regret that the better regulation package was not bold enough. We welcome the attention paid to territorial impact assessments but it does not make any sense to put us in the same camp as trade unions, business and civil society representatives given that we are an EU institution formally involved in the EU decision-making process and with an institutional task on subsidiarity monitoring. Local and regional authorities implement most EU legislation and should therefore be more involved in scrutinising it."
More information:
Draft Resolution on the European Committee of the Regions priorities for the sixth term of office 2015-2020
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