Brussels, 15/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Macro-economic conditionality, flexibility, and the rate at which structural funds are utilised continue to cause concern among MEPs, who expressed their disquiet to the European commissioner for regional policy, Johannes Hahn, during the European Parliament's plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday 15 November. The question and answer session related to the future of cohesion policy and the common agricultural policy, which allowed Commissioner Hahn to take stock of his proposal relating to the upcoming cohesion policy programming period 2014-2020.
Cornelia Ernst (GUE/NGL, Germany) and Sean Kelly (EPP, Ireland) tackled the tricky subject of macro-economic conditionality, which assumes that member states failing to comply with the provisions of the Stability Pact may have their European subsidies suspended. Once again, the commissioner sought to be reassuring by playing down the impact that the mechanism could have, and by describing it as a last resort. He did concede to Cornelia Ernst, however, that there was no safety net provided for the most disadvantaged regions should conditionality be applied.
Sean Kelly also deplored the utilisation rates of funds which continue to be low in a number of member states, fearing that a large proportion of funds are not used at all. On this point, the commissioner reiterated his commitment to fully use budgets allocated to countries and regions, especially by helping the weakest administrations to improve their capacity.
Constanze Angela Krehl (S&D, Germany) spoke, moreover, of the fact that regulations for European structural funds, currently subject to negotiation, would not leave the regions any room for manoeuvre. She asked the commissioner how the Commission hopes to ensure that flexibility in the regions is guaranteed in relation to their specificities and levels of development, when everything is already regulated as a percentage in the regulations. The most developed regions must allocate close to 80% of European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) to innovation, SMEs, and to energy efficiency. The commissioner defended her position by setting out the percentages established in her proposal as a general framework, saying: “The future cohesion policy aims to keep faithfully to the strategy 2020, and the objectives set out must be backed by major investment in the regions, hence our proposal to fix priorities - but it is up to the regions to choose”. (MD/transl.jl)