Brussels, 17/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - Informal agreements were apparently reached in institutional trialogue on a negotiating bloc for the common regulation on structural funds and on the cohesion fund. Progress made does not, however, reduce any of the urgency in the talks as the reform of cohesion policy is to be voted through this summer at the parliamentary regional development committee (REGI).
This week, an informal agreement was reportedly reached in trialogue on the negotiating bloc relating to regional development. This brings to 15 out of 17 the number of blocs remaining to be negotiated within the regulation on provisions common to the five structural funds concerned by cohesion policy reform. Nonetheless, negotiations, which had been bogged down for some time (see EUROPE 10838), are said to be making good headway. Other blocs may soon be concluded. The rapporteur Lambert van Nistelrooij (EPP, NL) tweeted on 15 May that work was going “full speed” ahead. Next week, two trialogues are scheduled to be held on the sidelines of the plenary session in Strasbourg, to be attended by Commissioners Hahn and Andor.
Nonetheless, the most sensitive issues of this common regulation, such as macro-economic conditionality, the performance reserve or ex ante conditions, were not even tackled. Time, however, is running short, as although there is still the intention to vote on reform in the parliamentary committee in July, work should be complete by end May to allow time for translations to be completed. Speaking on this subject early in the week during a conference of the Committee of the Regions, the Irish minister for public expenditure and reform, Brendan Howlin, said: “We are approaching what I hope will be the final stage in the negotiation of the cohesion legislative package for 2014-2020. (…) I have, of course, always been conscious that reaching political agreement in that timeframe would be a challenge - for both co-legislators - and I have never underestimated what is involved”.
Furthermore, an informal agreement on the specific regulation for the cohesion fund - for which the report is in the hands of Victor Bostinaru (S&D, Romania) - is said to have been reached in trialogue. The text will also be put to MEPs' vote during the ballot on total reform of cohesion policy. Not all the informal agreements registered, however, will be validated until the whole of the cohesion package is approved. (MD/transl.jl)