Brussels, 28/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 31 March, the members of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) will send Commissioner Janusz Lewandoski (budget, financial programming) the Committee's position on the draft budgets of the Commission for post-2013, to be unveiled in the early summer and representing stakes of several billion euros.
“The Committee's viewpoint is that identified needs must be used to frame the EU budget. It would not be acceptable to force the budget below a threshold that is fixed on the basis of national contributions, which have been falling over the years, at a time when the EU's aspirations are continually expanding”: this is the message sent by the local and regional MPs to the commissioner. They are combining their efforts to ensure that regional development, European integration and solidarity continue to benefit from adequate funding.
Given the importance of the subject, the members of the Committee have entrusted their president, Mercedes Bresso (PES, Italy) and the first vice-president, Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso (EPP, Spain) with coordinating the institution's position in the debate. Entitled The re-examination of the EU budget, the draft opinion of Mercedes Bresso and Ramon Luis Valcarcel Siso: -recognises “the importance of the EU 2020 strategy for intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth and stresses, as the Commission has done, that its success requires a partnership between the EU and national and regional institutions, and with the local authorities”; - stresses that “the place given to the EU 2020 strategy should not, however, lead to the reduction of the other objectives as laid down by the Treaties, in particular social, economic and territorial cohesion”; - is waiting for the proposal of the multiannual financial framework to take position in detail on expenditure, but already puts forward a few observations in the field of research, innovation, education, infrastructure and the future, energy and climate, common agricultural policy and cohesion policy.
As regards the new funding, the draft opinion calls on the Commission for a more detailed examination of the proposed euro-bond issuing. Additionally, the new structure should: - be “practical, realistic, transparent and easy to understand”; - make it possible to stress the sharing of duties in a multi-level governance approach; - establish expenditure posts on the basis of the actual way payments will be made and policies carried out.
As regards the European budget and the economic governance of the EU, the draft opinion points out that the Committee: - “is strongly opposed to the suggestion that member states in breach of the Stability and Growth Pact should be penalised by the suspension of aid granted under the cohesion policy, the CAP and the common fisheries policy, because the local authorities cannot be held responsible if the national institutions should be unable to satisfy the micro-economic criteria, or correctly to implement EU legislation, because a measure of this kind would mainly affect the local authorities which are lagging behind and which absolutely need these co-funded programmes to deal with their structural handicaps”; - recommends a complete re-examination of the financial regulation of the EU, to facilitate the application and implementation of the financial provisions. For more information: http://www.cor.europa.eu (G. B./transl.fl)