Brussels, 16/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - The cut of nearly €30 billion in the cohesion heading proposed by the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has really upset Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), who chairs the parliamentary committee on regional policy. The drastic cuts in relation to the Commission's proposals are, she said, quite unacceptable and may even be seen as insufferable hypocrisy on the part of the Council towards the Parliament. The former regional policy commissioner is not the only one to be extremely concerned by the way things are turning out, and the regions of Europe are on general alert. Cuts judged unequal cannot be comprehended.
The fourth wave of cuts for cohesion policy in 2014-2020 is therefore unacceptable for Hübner, who considers that the note from Van Rompuy on this subject “departs openly from Parliament's well-known and reiterated position demanding to maintain at least the current EU funding level for Cohesion Policy”. This is all the truer as the reductions already backed by the Cypriot Presidency in its negotiating box presented end October had already reached the red line for the European Parliament.
Hübner is all the more outraged as the “considerable cuts” are bigger than the cuts proposed in other policies. The regions had already agreed to insist on this in a joint declaration by Eurocities, the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), published early November during the informal Cohesion Council: “A potential reduction to the multi-annual financial framework should in any case not disproportionately affect cohesion policy which is one of the EU policies with the most evidence of added value”. It is also an argument that the European commissioner for regional policy, Johannes Hahn, is tackling head on.
The above associations said they were concerned by the impact that such cuts could have. Hübner now affirms that they “do not serve the public interest and added value underlying Cohesion Policy fundamental objectives”. Eleni Marianou, CPMR General Secretary, even asked “is Europe in the business of fully investing for a successful exit of the crisis or not? The recent additional cuts to precisely the headings of the EU budget that could guarantee growth and jobs do not give the impression of a strong political will behind declarations. Four percent, 14% and 18% cuts for the less developed, more developed and transition regions respectively, do not fulfil the ambitions of the proposed budget”. (MD/transl.jl)