Brussels; 21/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is proposing to show flexibility with regard to Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia, so that these countries can fully benefit from EU funding. This means that they will not lose any of the envelope allocated to them for this planning period that expires at the end of this year and which helps them tackle youth unemployment, support SMEs and fund major infrastructure projects in periods of crisis.
On Tuesday 21 May, the Commission proposed measures to more easily release funding of €400 million for Greece, €100 million for Portugal and €20 million for Cyprus in 2014. To this end, European co-funding within cohesion policy will be brought up to a maximum of 95% for these three countries, which will reduce national contributions to just 5%.
Romania and Slovakia may also be able to spend their cohesion funding for the current programming period beyond 2013 and therefore benefit from an additional deadline for using the money available.
The measures for these five countries will need to be adopted by the European Parliament and Council. The European commissioner for regional development, Johannes Hahn, explained that the European Commission's approach demonstrates that it is prepared “to show solidarity and flexibility to those hit badly by the crisis so they can get back on the path to growth… The tailor-made measures … will help these countries make use of much needed investments: to create sustainable jobs by supporting small and medium-sized business and helping them access finance, to help young people into work and to encourage innovation and research”. The proposed measures will not increase European funding available but will help it to be better used and take the financial pressure off national budgets that are obliged to participate in co-funding. However, the commissioner emphasised that, “while this proposal does offer breathing space, it cannot be a substitute for reform and acceleration in using the funds”.
This Commission initiative responds to requests made by the Council and the member states for optimum use of funding and adds other complementary measures to simplify the use of funds, such as the temporary increase (until the end of 2013) of European co-funding rates by 10 percentage points for countries most affected by the crisis. This measure has been extended by two years for Greece, Portugal and Cyprus as part of the new proposal. (MD/transl.fl)