Brussels, 27/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - Interinstitutional negotiations on the European Social Fund (ESF) are running far from smoothly. After just under 20 meetings and a hasty departure, in a sign of protest, by European Parliament negotiators (see EUROPE 10830), the positions taken by the Council of the EU and MEPs were only slighter closer on the most essential points. A first important stage has nonetheless been crossed with a view towards a final compromise with the agreement on a fixed budgetary share for the ESF in cohesion policy. Although a meeting, for information purposes, is still scheduled for early July, the negotiations proper will not continue until September.
The situation is simple. There is deadlock on a large number of issues. The only exception concerns an agreement recently reached on the Commission and Parliament's claim that the ESF should represent at least 23.1% of European cohesion policy funding in 2014-2020, i.e. 1.9% less than the two institutions had initially wanted. This, however, has been fixed not in relation to the total budget for cohesion policy but by subtracting the amounts allocated to the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) (nearly €30 billion) and to the European fund for the most deprived (€2.5 or €3.5 billion). The agreement that has just been found following interinstitutional negotiations on the next multiannual financial framework (see related article) provides €325.149 billion for cohesion policy, which means that the ESF would have around €67 billion. The Commission had initially proposed €84 billion.
Despite this move forward in negotiations, there are still many hurdles to be overcome along the way. Member states continue to refuse the proposal so dear to the Parliament - that of providing 20% of ESF for social inclusion and the fight against poverty. Elisabeth Morin-Chartier (EPP, France), who leads the battle on ESF, does not wish to hear anyone speak of greater flexibility in the scope of the fund (Article 3), whereby the Council is seeking the possibility of funding infrastructure (crèches, hospitals). Disagreement persists with regard to coherence and thematic concentration (Article 4), with uncertainty over the place to be given to the initiative for youth employment and its €3 billion that are to finance the Youth Guarantee. This last point is, moreover, essential in the discussions on youth unemployment between the heads of state and government, who are meeting in summit in Brussels on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 June. (JK/transl.jl)