Brussels, 23/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 23 June, MEPs held a joint decision on cohesion policy in Europe, at a session attended by Johannes Hahn. The four own-initiative reports on the MEPs' table have already been voted on, with no amendments. These are the reports by Miroslav Mikolasik on the implementation of cohesion policy programmes 2007-2013 (601 votes in favour, 61 against and 12 abstentions), Oldrich Vlasak on the European urban agenda and its future within cohesion policy (603 votes in favour, 41 against and 3 abstentions), Marie-Thérèse Sanchez-Schmid on Objective 3: a challenge for territorial cooperation - the future agenda for cross-border, trans-national and inter-regional cooperation (612 votes in favour, 46 against and 15 abstentions) and by Georgios Stavrakakis on the current situation and future synergies for increased efficiency between the ERDF and other structural funds (613 votes in favour, 47 against and 10 abstentions). As for the summary report on the fifth cohesion report and the cohesion policy strategy post-2013 (EUROPE 10389), it was decided that the adoption of this will be postponed until the July plenary session. Its rapporteur, Markus Pieper, wanted to bring in some 10 amendments which there was no time to discuss.
Summing up the morning's work, Johannes Hahn hailed the MEPs' “highly committed” debate, which showed the importance of cohesion policy and regional policy, and stated that the “very rich and varied” points of view of the EP will be taken into account in the draft regulation being prepared to September of this year (EUROPE 10403). The regional policy commissioner stressed the quality of the work with the regions, particularly in countries with real structural problems. It is important to provide effective levels of aid from the start of the drafting process and when implementing clusters between the regions. He also pledged that multi-level governance would be set in place and urged the local and regional authorities to participate fully in this and to convey their points of view. We must not content ourselves with hackneyed slogans, we need better controls and measures making it possible to simplify procedures, said Johannes Hahn, who expressed his confidence, having listened to Michel Barnier plead in favour of “a simplification and unification of the procedures, which will help us to bring down the error rate in this field”. Taking the European Social Fund (ESF) out of the cohesion fund's family is not currently on the agenda. What happens in rural areas should be carried out from the funds earmarked for rural development (ERDF). The strategic common framework-objective provides for the coordination of the work to be stepped up. The commissioner argued that it is necessary to contribute to qualitative growth in order to make the EU 2020 strategy a reality, with the priority objectives of energy, research, training and the fight against poverty.
For Miroslav Mikolasik (EPP, Slovakia), the implementation of cohesion policy programmes 2007-2013 “is a continual process which we can improve”. Cohesion policy must speak to all regions and achieve intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth throughout the EU. The funds cannot remain at deadlock due to inflexible bureaucracy, he warned.
The structural funds were created to balance out the gaps between the different regions, pointed out Oldrich Vlasak (ECR, Czech Republic). “If we want to reinforce Objective 2 and create a category of intermediate regions without any idea of how to pay for them, I do not agree, because this is a way to favour the richest regions!", he said. He did, however, acknowledge that market trends must be taken into account. Competition between the regions, authorities and cities must be fair and all measures must feed into growth, the rapporteur concluded.
In the view of Marie-Thérèse Sanchez-Schmidt (EPP, France), whose report could greatly influence the legislative package being prepared by the Commission, the legislature package on economic governance provides for responsible measures and the cohesion policy is the second pillar on which intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth should be based. “These are the two sides of the same coin”, said the MEP, who believes that further action must be taken in favour of a “simpler and more ambitious” cohesion policy. Speaking to the press, Marie-Thérèse Sanchez-Schmidt lent her support to the Pieper report. “I forcefully defended the creation of an intermediary category of regions, so that regions whose GDP is between 75% and 90% of the European average will be able to have fair access to funds coming from the competitiveness objective”, she said, adding that the most important part of this debate is the concern that “some countries might try to whittle everything away!”. She concluded: Commissioner Hahn is very much in favour of this category of regions, but not of any reduction in other credits. As the cross-border cooperation, the MEP said that it “works well, it is a proper laboratory of ideas, a way of making what Europe can offer its citizens visible”.
Cohesion policy should have an adequate budget, said Giorgios Stavrakakis (S&D, Greece). We must take as our basis simplified rules between the various funds, also allowing the intervention, in the various European negotiations, of the regions representing handicaps, such as the extremely remote regions, and work to create an intermediate category of regions. “My message”, Giorgios Stavrakakis concluded, is that “the EU must look beyond statistics”. (G.B./transl.fl)