Brussels, 11/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - In the field of cohesion, the goals of the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of Ministers until the end of the year are twofold: completing cohesion policy reform and opening up the debate on macro-regional strategies. On Wednesday 10 July, Rimantas Sadzius, Lithuanian Minister for Finance, outlined the priorities of the rotating Presidency of the EU, to MEPs at the European Parliament's regional development committee (REGI).
The Lithuanian Presidency needs to reform cohesion policy for the new 2014-2020 financial programming period and the REGI committee has just submitted this package for the vote, despite there still being a number of points on which a compromise is required between the Council and Parliament. The Lithuanian minister explained that “finishing negotiations is Lithuania's main priority for this specific area”. Sadzius said that “we're not going to be deciding on the details, we need to keep the common objective in mind, which is very clear: freeing up €300 billion for companies, the unemployed, those seeking training and infrastructure”. He recognised that the timetable did not leave much room but he hopes to “obtain compromises as early as possible, namely, this September”. The Lithuanian negotiating teams have already received praise from the co-rapporteur on the general regulation for structural funds, Constanze Krehl (S&D, Germany). She was delighted that these trialogues under the Lithuanian Presidency had already proved “refreshing in their dynamism and a number of success stories had already been notched up. Not all Presidencies are as capable of showing such openness and flexibility in the trialogues”. She puts this down to the fact that there is a mixed team of negotiators.
Sadzius emphasised to MEPs that the Presidency would pay particular attention to macro-regional strategies, especially for the Baltic region, which is particularly important for Lithuania. Vilnius intends to hold a debate at the Council on the already existing strategies and “the added value they sometimes fail to provide”, on the basis of the Commission's evaluation of this added value (see EUROPE 10878). At the beginning of November, Lithuania will also host the fourth macro-regional forum on the Baltic. (MD/transl.fl)