Brussels, 30/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - In its publication of a working document on partnership contracts, the Commission is making work easier for the member states, which need to make preparations for the forthcoming programming period for the cohesion policy 2014-2020. The working document explains the ins and outs of these partnership contracts, provided for in the Commission's proposals to reform the European structural funds. It includes a code of conduct on these contracts, which will be published once the legislative package on the cohesion policy has been adopted. At this stage, the working document also provides the opportunity to feed into negotiations at the European Parliament and Council, by clarifying what the Commission means by partnership contract.
In the proposed umbrella regulation which will apply to the five structural funds, the Commission recommends that for each programme funded by the EU, the member states enter into partnerships with various partners (public authorities, socio-economic partners, civil society). By being involved in a partnership contract, these various bodies will help towards the appropriate management and achievement of these programmes.
The public authorities would be the first pillar of these partnerships. The working document recognises the pre-eminent role of the regions in the partnership. These often have constitutional powers, and generally play the role of management authorities for the implementation of programmes. The Commission also insists that the member states take account of the urban areas.
The second type of entity involved in the partnership contract is socio-economic partners, which are habitually involved in collective negotiations. The Commission excludes representatives of specific interests, and would like to see an equal representation of employee and employer associations. Universities or chambers of commerce could also be invited.
Lastly, entities representing civil society would be involved in the partnership contracts as organisations active in environmental protection or gender equality, for example. If there are too many of these, it will be possible to appoint a single representative.
As one might expect, the identification of the partners should be related to the area of action of the European programme. Once selected, the partners will be involved in every stage of the implementation of the programme - in other words from the preparation and execution of the programme (via a management committee to select projects and report on progress) right the way through to evaluation (report to be submitted no later than 31 December 2020). The partnership itself will also be evaluated.
The core idea of the partnership contract is to work under the principle of governance at several levels, and therefore to include the actors who are closest to the European citizens. By introducing partnership contracts in its reform of the cohesion policy, the Commission will make the use of this principle obligatory after 2014, although these contracts already exist in practice within the EU. In its working document, the Commission draws up a list of these and calls for an exchange of best practice. At this point, the working document seeks to better define what needs to be done in order to establish these contracts, although the procedures will remain in the hands of the public authorities. (MD/transl.fl)