Brussels, 10/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - Reform of the EU's cohesion policy is firming up, with an initial vote by the European Parliament's regional development committee on Wednesday 10 July on common measures for the five EU structural funds and the rules for the European regional development fund (ERDF) and cohesion fund. Some areas remain to be decided, but the package is likely to get through its first reading later this month. The €325 billion planned for cohesion policy could then be spent on the programmes due to start in January 2014 under improved rules at EU level.
For more than a year, after the vote on the negotiating mandate for the cohesion policy, three-way institutional meetings have mushroomed to try and reach as much agreement as possible on the Commission's proposals to update cohesion policy and its five structural funds - the European regional development fund, the European social fund, the cohesion fund, the European fund for agriculture and rural development and the European fund for maritime affairs and fisheries. The chair of the regional development committee, Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), said that, after several months of intense negotiations and her negotiating team's sheer determination, they had reached agreement with the Council of Ministers on more than 90% of the legislative package and had considerably improved the measures for an efficient cohesion policy. She said that the vote gave greater security to people who will be implementing the programme.
The regulation on the common measures for the five funds was greatly amended by the rapporteurs Lambert Van Nistelrooij (EPP, the Netherlands) and Constanze Krehl (S&D, Germany) in 17 different negotiating boxes, six of which have been agreed upon. In the box on strategic programming, the role of local authorities in implementation of the cohesion policy has been expanded, and the negotiators have re-balanced the partnership contracts between the European Commission and the member states. Greater flexibility has been introduced for combining funding. Van Nistelrooij says that this multi-fund approach is one of the key successes of vote. The common strategic framework box re-defines the scope of the framework, and agreement has also been reached on territorial development, assessment and management, eligibility and communication. Controversial areas still to be settled include the prior conditions, the performance framework and the performance reserve, which the EP strongly opposes, explained Krehl. The question of macroeconomic criteria also needs to be agreed upon - it includes the option of suspending funding for countries failing to comply with the EU's macroeconomic recommendations. In order to finally reach agreement on the outstanding areas, a three-way meeting is planned next week and another in early September. Voting on the areas of the package on which agreement has been reached by then would be possible at the October plenary, so there is still strong hope that the new planning period's programmes can start in January 2014.
MEPs adopted a report by Jan Olbrycht (EPP, Poland) on updating the regulation on the European regional development fund. The vote endorses a new classification system for least developed regions, whose GDP is less than 65% of the EU average, transition regions (65%-85%) and more developed regions (more than 85% of the EU average). The MEPs will ensure that transition regions are granted greater flexibility in their choice of investment priorities. The ERDF priorities have been aligned with the cohesion fund's priorities.
The report on the regulation on the cohesion fund was drawn up by Victor Bostinaru (S&D, Romania), who explained that the new cohesion fund would be innovative and would respect the environment by including the polluter-pays principle. He said that energy efficiency, renewable energy in private housing, high-performance co-generation of heat and power and crucial investment in waste management and water will be eligible for finance. The report agrees with the transfer of €10 billion from the cohesion fund to the connecting Europe facility for the financing of infrastructure. The general aim has been to make use of the cohesion fund simpler and make it easier to speak the language of cohesion in the regions, said Bostinaru.
Two other reports were voted through, updating the regulation on territorial cooperation in Europe and the regulation on European cooperation groupings. (MD/transl.fl)