Brussels, 21/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 20 March at the EP regional development committee, the commissioner responsible for the environment, Connie Hedegaard, stated that “cohesion policy is the ideal tool for boosting growth and supporting the transition to a low carbon economy”. Not all MEPs, however, concur.
During a hearing, the commissioner insisted that cohesion policy invest in projects with added environmental value and that there be a high level of European guidance in helping to choose the right projects. Constanz Krehl (S&D, Germany), the co-rapporteur on the general regulation on structural funds for 2014-2020, however, issued a warning: “Cohesion policy is not to be equated with the fight against climate change (…) Let's be careful, if we put cohesion policy at the service of renewable energies, it will be necessary to prevent our initial idea of regional and social cohesion vanishing into oblivion.”.
Following on from other MEPs, Krehl argued that greater flexibility was needed so that the regions could select their own priorities, particularly the most privileged regions or those in transition and which are obliged to invest 20% of their allocation from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) into energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.
Elisabeth Schroedter (Greens/EFA, Germany) and Jan Olbrycht (EPP, Poland) showed their failure to understand why transport, particularly urban public transport, had not been included in ERDF investment priorities, although this could help to make a more sustainable society. More generally, MEPs consider that greater room for manoeuvre should be granted to the regions so that they can determine their own priorities. (MD/transl.fl)