Brussels, 30/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - MEPs have received some positive indications from the Commission and Council about cohesion policy reform. Representatives from the latter institutions were invited to the regional development parliamentary committee (REGI) on Tuesday 29 May. The European commissioner for regional development, Johannes Hahn, announced that he might be opening the debate on the possibility that the Common Strategic Framework (CSF) become an annex, as requested by the Parliament for a long time, and not a delegated act, as advocated by the Commission. The Presidency of the Council and the Danish minister for European affairs, Nicolai Wammen, informed MEPs that negotiations on cohesion policy were on the right track, with a partially common approach already established on six areas of negotiations and he said that work would continue on three additional areas until the end of June.
Commission working on idea of an annex. It appears that the Parliament has succeeded in opening a breach in the hard-line positions taken by the Commission on the CSF. The Commission originally saw it as a delegated act, which was not to the liking of the Parliament. The latter is afraid that MEPs could in some way be removed from the decision-making process. The EP has therefore, for a long time, argued for the CSF to be treated as an annex, so that the EP can ensure that it is adopted. Commissioner Hahn has, for the first time, opened the door to this being an option and said that it is the situation as a whole that counts - “the Commission therefore agrees to enter discussions with Parliament about the formulation of an annex, which will not make the act of execution null and void… and is prepared to discuss this annex and its scope, in an effort to reach a common understanding”. Many MEPs have also drawn the commissioner's attention to the need to display greater flexibility in the thematic concentration but the commissioner was less magnanimous on this subject.
Council negotiations cruising along. Nicolai Wammen effectively came to provide a progress report achieved by his country's presidency, a month before the Cypriots take over. He said that he was confident about the Council negotiation developments on cohesion policy reform for the 2014-2020 programming period. In April, the General Affairs Council adopted a common approach on six negotiating blocks, Wammen pointed out. He asserted that this would allow for a solid basis to be established for the negotiations on the package, which the Presidency would like to push forward as far as is possible. Wammen is insisting on the fact that the Danish mandate has not yet finished and that work will continue throughout June, until the next General Affairs Council. He announced that the ongoing negotiations were focusing on “financial instruments and the thematic concentration… it would be necessary to return to questions regarding the specific recommendations for each country on the programming”. (MD/transl.fl)