Brussels, 17/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - What is the Commission waiting for to bring out guidelines for the next cohesion policy programming period, wonders Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), Chair of the European Parliament's regional development committee and former European commissioner for regional policy.
On Thursday 17 January she criticised an ambiguous situation: “We are negotiating the regulatory framework without knowing the Commission's intentions on state aid. This has no sense”. She says that the negotiation process in trialogue on the legislative framework of the future cohesion policy is nonetheless “well advanced” and that if the European budget is adopted in February, “we hope to finalise the negotiations by the summer”. However, without the guidelines, the situation is becoming worrying, in Hübner's view, because “the rules on state aid can render meaningless the provisions currently negotiated on the seven regulations, excluding certain regions, in particular those changing from convergence to more developed status, or certain beneficiaries”. She also says that she hopes that the awaited document on state aid will not “weaken the contribution of cohesion policy to the European agenda for growth”. (MD/transl.fl)