Brussels, 09/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Council must openly support the setting up of a “transition” category for the regions, which will enable all the different European regions to benefit from cohesion policy for 2014-2020. This underpins the request submitted on Tuesday 9 October to Commissioner Johannes Hahn from 20 “in transition” European regions in Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. These regions reiterated how fundamentally important they believed it is to create a category that brings together all the regions whose per capita GDP is between 75% and 90% of the Community average. A press release explained that, “despite the sustained backing of the Committee of the Regions, European Parliament and certain member states for creating this category, there is still uncertainty regarding the future of this proposal. Some member states are still asking themselves what would the European added value be, despite this being a vector for sustainable, inclusive and smart growth”.
The delegates involved in this question emphasise, however, with a view to fairness, the appropriateness of the objective for harmonising provisions on the modalities for the thematic concentration of funds and co-funding within this category, in an effort to better respond to their regions' requirements. At the same time, they acknowledge that regions leaving the convergence objective in the new period could also benefit from an appropriate safety net. (LC/transl.fl)