Brussels, 18/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - Inter-institutional talks on the European Social Fund (ESF) were postponed on Thursday 18 April when European Parliament (EP) representatives stormed out. After a dozen meetings, the same problems keep on coming up, with the EP accusing member states of bad faith and playing the worst case scenario game.
The EU Council's position is unacceptable, Pervenche Berès (S&D, France) who chairs the EP's employment and social affairs committee and represents the EP in the ESF talks along with rapporteur Elisabeth Morin-Chartier (EPP, France) told this newsletter. In a joint press release, the two MEPs say: “The Council of Ministers is disrespecting the European Parliament's co-legislative powers and its brinkmanship is jeopardising the European Social Fund's entry into force on 1 January 2014”.
The problems are threefold. The ESF will work in new areas (€3 billion has been released for the Youth Guarantee Mechanism, a new EU fund for the underprivileged) but the Council is reported to be challenging the idea of the ESF getting basic funding. The European Commission and the EP refuse to budge on granting the ESF a quarter of the cohesion fund for 2014-2020.
The Irish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers would like to include the option of the ESF being used to finance infrastructure projects (hospitals and crèches), says Berès, explaining that it was not acceptable to simply introduce this idea part-way through the negotiations because that is not want the ESF is for. The Council is also reported to want to remove the earmarking of 20% of the ESF that the Commission suggests should be spent on alleviating poverty and social exclusion.
Keeping the pressure up on the Council, the two MEPs say it has 24 hours to come up with changes to its demands. (JK/transl.fl)