Brussels, 26/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Commission are putting up a united front to defend transition regions. This concerns a Commission proposal under the cohesion policy reform which is contested in negotiations on the multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020. The cohesion budget and transition regions were at the centre of talks between the president of the CoR, Ramon Luis Valcarcel Siso, and European Commissioner for Regional Development Johannes Hahn on Tuesday 25 September. This was their first meeting since Valcarcel took up the presidency and its purpose was to discuss the EU budget.
They agreed that the category of transition regions cannot disappear when it includes regions whose GDP is between 75% and 90% of the European average. As Valcarcel said to the press after his meeting with Hahn, to eliminate this category would be a historical mistake because “it is simply not possible for a region to change from poor to rich over night”. He urged the regions to convince the member states to act on this concept. Hahn, for his part, said that they had brought forward a relaunch of cohesion policy with transition regions because the objective was to reduce the disparities between the regions. It would make no sense to accomplish these changes on the major component of this policy, he said.
Speaking more generally on the European budget which could see a decrease in the amount allocated to cohesion policy, Hahn repeated that he opposed any cuts and that if there must be cuts they would fight them to the end. He said if they must suffer from cuts then everyone must suffer from them, and he defended a strong regional policy. He highlighted the contradiction of the member states who want to freeze the budget while arguing for measures to boost growth and employment. Valcarcel also affirmed that austerity is not an excuse and said that they can't make cuts in the budget headings in the name of austerity, which then have consequences on exiting the crisis. (MD/transl.fl)