Brussels, 02/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - The cohesion policy, as it is shaping up for 2011-2020, should do more to respond to the problems of poverty and social inclusion. The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) is putting together proposed areas of work to ensure that the structural funds allow the EU to achieve its specific objective of 20 million fewer people living in poverty in Europe by 2020. In order to do this, the NGO argues, improvements must be made to the legislative proposals of the European Commission on the cohesion policy post-2013.
More room for the NGOs. The principle of the partnership contract concluded between the member states and the Commission prior to the granting of funds for cohesion projects should be extended to civil society. Civil society should not just be “involved” in preparing contracts, as the current regulation provides, but NGOs and representatives of civil society should have partnerships in place with the Commission in the same way as the member states do, in order to maximise the chances of success in the reduction of poverty. Additionally, the EAPN pleads for small NGOs to be able to have facilitated access to the structural funds, particularly in the framework of transnational projects.
Furthermore, the network has reservations about the possibility of integrating the European Programme of Food Aid to the Most Deprived (PEAD) with the European Social Fund. If this happened, the budgetary envelope for the cohesion policy would have to be increased in order to keep enough financial leeway to preserve the effectiveness of the programme.
Budget and macro-economic conditions. Like many other NGOs, the anti-poverty network is outraged at the inclusion of macro-economic conditionality, which brings with it the risk of cutting funds to member states struggling to keep their budgets under control. The network also feels that this runs counter to the principle of solidarity. The EAPN goes on to call for the financial framework 2016-2020 to give ambitious amounts to the cohesion policy and the structural funds, and for the envelope to be increased rather than decreased, as certain member states are calling for.
These recommendations of the anti-poverty network were published on Wednesday 2 November and are intended mainly for the directors general with responsibility for the cohesion policy, who are meeting in Warsaw on 3-4 November. (MP/transl.fl)