Brussels, 28/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Local and regional authorities, and ultimately the local communities, would be the main victims if structural funds to Hungary were suspended. The Committee of the Regions (CoR) has sounded the alarm on this, and regrets that macroeconomic conditionality, which specifically concerns the Cohesion Fund, is now to be extended to all structural funds in the next cohesion policy programming period.
The Committee of the Regions takes up the issue of the threat that one third of cohesion funding foreseen for Hungary (€495 million) may be suspended in 2013 if that country does not correct its public deficit by the end of the year to bring it below the 3% of GDP mark. All CoR political groups agree that the measure will have a significant impact on the final beneficiaries of cohesion projects in transport, energy and environmental infrastructures. Those beneficiaries are mainly local and regional authorities, and hence more broadly the local communities, which are already greatly affected by the economic crisis. If the threat of suspension were carried out in 2013 then the local communities would also suffer from the repercussions of the interruption of relevant long-term investment programmes, the CoR deplores. (MD/transl.jl)