Brussels, 24/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - There is no report from the French government on the future of the cohesion policy of the EU, but France has provided a response to a public consultation on the fifth report on economic, social and territorial cohesion. It is “abusive” to write, as the French Socialist delegation to the European Parliament did in a press release, that “the French government is burying the cohesion policy”; and stating that “the French government reaffirms that reducing the share of the European budget to go to cohesion policy is a priority” takes the French response somewhat out of context (our translation throughout). “It seems to us logical that the budget is being reduced, if you refer to Eurostat statistics. Certain regions have become richer, rising above 75% of GDP, causing savings elsewhere. We need to take note of what has happened and see how this money can be reinvested”, state French sources. France has taken position in favour of a constant budget in the future and points out that new expenditure will come to light in the near future, which will have to be paid for, such as the European External Action Service (EEAS), they continue. For France, the cohesion policy applies to all regions and objective 2 (regional competitiveness, employment) must be kept in place. France is now waiting for suggestions from the European Commission.
In its response to the consultation, France points out that in its fifth report, the Commission proposes that all regions and member states of the EU be able to continue to benefit from the cohesion policy. It suggests that “a simplified system which includes a new intermediate category for regions could replace the current system of phasing out and phasing in aid”. The aim is to create an accompaniment with decreasing intensity from the least-developed regions to the most-developed ones, limiting the effects of the current thresholds, whilst ensuring “that regions with similar levels of economic development are treated more fairly”.
France takes the view that the current transition mechanisms, between convergence and competitiveness and one arranged by the cohesion fund, have built-in disadvantages, particularly in terms of fairness. The idea of bringing in a new category of intermediate regions, to replace these transition mechanisms, cannot be dealt with independently of the question of the financial envelope granted to the cohesion policy and overall developments in the European budget. France states that if a new intermediate mechanism were decided upon, this should not call into question either the effects anticipated of the convergence observed between the regions and the European states or of taking account of recent waves of enlargement, or the priority objective of cutting the share of the European budget earmarked for the cohesion policy. France goes on to argue that this mechanism should be calibrated with considerably lower aid intensity than exists in convergence, and not prejudge any reforms which could subsequently be carried out. Setting an intermediate mechanism of this kind in place could be a possibility if all of these conditions are met.
First of all, France would like the cohesion policy post-2013, and the negotiations to come, to respect the following principles: (1) stability in the architecture of the management and control system of the current programming period; (2) efforts towards simplification must be stepped up, in order to facilitate access to European funds for project initiators and to promote proper management by the administrative services; (3) harmonisation of the inter-fund rules and coordination of European shared-management funds (ERDF, ESF, cohesion fund, EAFRD, EFF) must be improved; (4) the principal partnership in the framework of multi-level governance must be kept in place; (5) the effectiveness of work done in the framework of efforts to reduce budget levels must be improved; (6) efforts should be made to improve the visibility of its added value, through monitoring and assessment.
It is worth noting that in January of this year, five French MEPs of the EPP Group wrote to French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire, pleading in favour of an ambitious cohesion policy (EUROPE 10292). For the fifth report on cohesion, see EUROPE 10254/10251, for the work of the fifth forum on cohesion, EUROPE 10306. For the whole of France's response to the consultation on the future of the cohesion policy, see ec.europa.eu/regional_policy. (G.B./transl.fl)