Brussels, 03/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, wished to sound a note of hope - albeit moderate - on a return to growth, when addressing the local representatives meeting for the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) in Brussels, on Thursday 3 May. Members of the CoR expected Van Rompuy to provide reassurance that growth, and not just austerity, would be on the EU's agenda. CoR President Mercedes Bresso asked as the meeting opened what the long term strategy would be to “prevent the trap closing on the European economy”.
A necessary evil. Admitting that there is no miracle cure, and that results of structural reforms begun will take some time to be felt, Van Rompuy sought to convince that the year 2013 would bring a more robust return to growth, after European growth stagnation in 2012. Aware of the effort being made and the courage of those subject to austerity measures, he defended the budgetary recovery programmes as a necessary evil. He frankly admitted that the policy for cutting public deficit and public debt is not an end in itself but aims to make growth more sustainable afterwards. It is not done for pleasure, he said quite plainly, adding that the final goal is job creation. He regretted that efforts to face up to the banking crisis and sovereign debt crisis have hindered efforts on growth, although, he pointed out, work has never ended on this. He wished to recall that various Councils from 2010 on had already placed growth on their agenda and that this would again be the case during the next informal Council.
The role of the regions. Wishing to provide an adequate response to questions raised by local representatives, Van Rompuy explained that priority should now be given to investment to guarantee future growth (education, training, R&D, etc.). “The art of budgetary consolidation is not to say no but to say yes to certain spending”, much of which is under the responsibility of local authorities, he said, stressing that it is not the EU that will say how one should spend. “It is your responsibility, that of member states. What we want to do with the Commission is show the way, give directions, but the implementation must be under national competence”, he explained to those representing the local authorities.
Cohesion budget. Van Rompuy's message of hope was less convincing on the subject of the cohesion policy budget, that CoR members would like to see sufficiently well replenished. Van Rompuy simply stated that, although there would have to be a budget freeze, the share relating to cohesion policy in the budget as a whole remained larger in the end. (MD/transl.jl)