Brussels, 31/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - The decision by the European summit on 30 January that the remaining Structural Fund cash be used to boost growth and jobs is music to the ears of the European Parliament and the European Commission, although the statement issued by the heads of state (with a “parliamentary reservation'” by Sweden) does not introduce anything new.
Rethinking the Structural Funds. Some €82 billion of cohesion policy money for 2007-13 remains to be allocated to the member states, €60bn of it in the European Regional Development Fund and €22bn in the European Social Fund (ESF). The heads of the 27 member states agreed that this cash must be used to generate jobs for young people and provide funding for small business in the real economy. The politicians' statement says that the eight member states where more than 30% of young people are unemployed (Ireland, Greece, Italy, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Slovakia) must re-allocate the funding they receive from the EU Cohesion Fund to get unemployed youngsters into work and use ESF cash to pay for training courses and back young entrepreneurs.
Commission already working on it. Delighted that many of the Commission's recommendations were endorsed by the heads of state, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, sent a letter on Tuesday to the eight above-mentioned countries to get them to quickly draw up national job plans and appoint a liaison officer. A European Commission team will visit each of the eight in February 2012.
European Parliament on the ball. The summit statement meets the expectations of the European Parliament, with the president of the EP explaining in a press release while the summit was still under way: “It would make sense to find a use for the billions of euros in the EU budget which are not taken up by member states, rather than simply returning them to the contributors.” The Christian Democrats are also very enthusiastic about the summit's ideas and suggest further areas of action. Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), who chairs the EP's regional development committee, promised her party's support: “The EPP Group will lead the efforts in the European Parliament to facilitate the use of Structural Funds that remain to be allocated until the end of 2013 to projects generating new jobs, especially for young people, and stimulating investment of small and medium-sized companies.” On Monday 31 January, she said: “We (Ed: the EP) are now working hard to create a risk sharing instrument which would further allow boosting the anti-crisis role of the cohesion policy. This needs to be adopted urgently to overcome the credit crunch in the most affected countries. I hope the Council will join us in making of this proposal a top priority.” Fellow EPP MEP Lambert van Nistelrooij (the Netherlands), who is EP rapporteur on the general Structural Fund Regulation, said: “EU member states that have been hit the most by the crisis need to take up leadership and create action plans, and they need to do it now. Equally important is the possibility to increase the EU co-financing rate for those countries that are most affected. There is also a crucial role for the European Investment Bank to take action so as to allow for joint financing possibilities.” The only disagreement was expressed by Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D, Belgium), who said that the summit's statement amounted to no more than subsidising training courses in companies, using existing funds, and she commented bitterly that the heads of state had simply ignored innovative and highly promising measures. (MD/transl.fl)