Brussels, 04/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in plenary session in Brussels on 31 March and 1 April, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) detailed its proposals for the reform of regional aid of the EU and the European Social Fund (ESF).
In its adoption of the opinion of Michel Delebarre (PES, France), the Mayor of Dunkirk, on the 5th cohesion report, the members of the Committee: - welcomed the progress made towards reducing the economic gulfs between the regions; - stressed that major disparities nonetheless continue to exist. To attenuate these, the future cohesion policy must be given adequate resources. These efforts must be based on the needs of the regions and the cities in development matters and must not be used solely to pursue the objectives of the EU 2020 strategy; - warned against the idea of establishing a link between available funds and a small number of priorities imposed; - pleaded for cohesion policy to cover all of the European regions, whilst concentrating on the least developed ones; - suggested envisaging the creation of a new “intermediate” category of funding for the regions with GDP between 75% and 90% of the European average, to permit more targeted support; - called for an increase in the budget for this policy and increased technical assistance for territorial cooperation between the local and regional authorities; - spoke out strongly against “external conditionality” for the structural funds (freezing of regional aid to the member states which break EU rules on budgetary deficits) and stressed the need for greater simplification.
With the adoption of the opinion by Catiuscia Marini (PES, Italy), who is president of the region of Umbria, on the future of the European Social Fund (ESF), the members of the Committee of the Regions said: - projects funded via the ESF need to be made more visible; - the added value of the fund should be highlighted; - the multiannual nature of the fund provides local communities and project promoters much needed stability; - the funding rules are more flexible than many national programmes, making it easier to get training or social projects off the ground; - and the ESF must focus more on cross-cutting priorities such as social inclusion and the fight against gender and age-based discrimination, while protecting disadvantaged groups such as persons with disabilities, immigrants and the Roma community. (G.B./transl.jl)