Brussels, 25/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Danish presidency intends to conclude a second section in the cohesion package and reach a second partial approach during the General Affairs Council on Tuesday, 26 June. Four blocks will be submitted for approval by the EU 27: two of them focus on more sensitive subjects like thematic concentration and the performance framework. Two other sections focus on financial instruments and modalities for profit generating projects.
The thematic concentration proposed by the Commission immediately created a certain level of commotion and the Council sought to make it more flexible. Nonetheless, the compromise proposed by the presidency upholds the main idea of better concentrating available resources. The compromise suggests, for example, that to the three priority investment areas for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) -research, SMEs, low carbon economies - be added information and communication technologies.
The text, which will be submitted to the General Affairs Council, circumvents the investment objective of the European Social Fund (ESF) in the regions, as initially established by the Commission, preferring a range valid not only for the ERDF, but also for the Cohesion Funds and the ESF. This translates as between 45% and 50% of resources from structural funds in the most developed regions, between 20% and 25% for less developed regions and between 35% and 40% for regions in transition. It should be noted that the concept of regions in transition is still a subject that will need to be examined later on in light of the results from the negotiations on the multiannual financial framework (MFF).
The compromise on the performance framework will not decide on the reservation contained within the performance (5% for funds set aside and only redistributed if a programme has already achieved the mid-term objectives). This is the subject that is causing a certain amount of controversy. It will be part of the negotiations on the MFF and will not yet appear in the general approach, which will be focusing more on the practical modalities of the performance framework.
If a partial approach is achieved on these sections and is therefore added to the approach concluded in April on the other six, the Danish presidency will have managed to have, “gone as far as possible” in negotiations on cohesion. This will be because, except for a few technical details and all the points negotiated within the MFF, there will only be the common strategic framework left for the Cypriot presidency to discuss. Nonetheless, the whole cohesion package will not be approved by the Council until the MFF has been adopted. Until then, it will still be possible to negotiate a variety of different points. (MD/trans/fl)