Brussels, 07/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - Poland is stepping up its initiatives to ensure that the cohesion policy budget is not scaled down under the negotiations on the multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020. This time, European Commissioners Johannes Hahn (regional policy) and Laszlo Andor (employment) spoke alongside Polish Regional Development Minister Elzbieta Bienkowska on Monday 7 May, to call for the cohesion policy to be a sizeable asset for growth and employment, against a backdrop of austerity measures throughout the EU.
Presidential context. This issue is even more relevant in the wake of the presidential elections in France. The new French president, Socialist François Hollande, has made growth central to his campaign on the economy in Europe. Without prejudging the stance he will adopt on cohesion, Bienkowska acknowledged that negotiations with France on the cohesion policy budget had hitherto been tense.
Win-win situation. On the basis of the success of the cohesion policy in her country, which has greatly benefited from European funding, the Polish minister argued that this policy leads to a win-win situation. “Cohesion brings growth and employment to all of Europe and not just the direct beneficiaries”, she said, on the basis of figures recently published by a study commissioned by Poland. For every euro invested in the cohesion policy by a country, that member state gets back 65 cents via additional contracts and exports. It is for this reason that Bienkowska is stressing that the budget for cohesion should be cut “as a last resort, not a first resort”, as suggested by current negotiations on the multi-annual framework.
Compromise with austerity. Ever pragmatic, Commissioner Hahn is not up in arms over the austerity measures, but recommends a happy medium between structural reforms and recovery strategies: “healthier public finances, yes, but with actions to promote growth and employment. Actions on top of austerity measures, not instead of them.” To this end, the cohesion policy is a key mechanism, he said, and therefore needs a strong budget. He calls on the regions to carry out their own lobbying of the national governments, the richest ones in particular, to ensure that the budget proposed by the Commission is kept at the same level.
Polish “charm tour”. The conference held in Brussels on Monday is part of a broader campaign of the Polish Ministry of Regional Development to convince the decision-makers of the net contributor states not to cut the cohesion budget. Vienna, Copenhagen and Stockholm are on the agenda for Bienkowska's “charm tour”, following Paris, Berlin and The Hague. (MD/transl.fl)