Brussels, 30/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - The EU Council of Ministers will not distance itself from its negotiating mandate in order to accommodate the European Parliament's position on the four remaining points in reform of the Cohesion Policy. The countries that are net contributors to the EU budget are refusing to budge over concessions to MEPs in the three-way talks (the Commission, the Parliament and the ministers).
Meeting in extremis for a General Affairs Council in Brussels, EU regional policy ministers were asked by the Lithuanian Presidency on Monday 30 September to clarify their views on policy questions on which agreement has not been reached for the past few months (macroeconomic conditionality, performance reserve and co-financing and pre-financing ratios).
Lithuanian regional affairs minister said that the delegations were unanimous on the need for rapid agreement in line with the Council of Ministers' negotiating mandate and ensuring a delicate equilibrium. A number of delegations, however, are prepared to be flexible, with the exception of the net contributors.
The most controversial question is the idea of strings being attached to aid, an idea known as macroeconomic conditionality, which the Parliament criticises, but the Council and Commission view as a key aspect of cohesion reform. The German delegation is paying particular attention to ensure it is not watered down and this intransigence is reported to be shared by the British, French, Dutch, Austrian, Latvian, Swedish and Finnish delegations.
Other countries are prepared to be more flexible to differing degrees to enable agreement to be reached with the Parliament; countries like Spain, Belgium, Poland, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia and Bulgaria. The Lithuanian ministers said that additional guarantees could be introduced to reduce any undesirable impact of macroeconomic conditionality. EU Regional Development Commissioner Johannes Hahn explained the possible concessions, saying that he had abandoned the idea of the Stability and Growth Pact being used to trigger correction procedures because reprogramming cannot be used to solve deficits. The Parliament might therefore enter talks on the conditionality procedures, but there should not be very many re-programmings (not more than one every two years) and the remaining period in the programming cycle must be taken into account, along with member states' economic situations.
On the performance reservation, which the Parliament wants to be reduced from 7% to 5%, the split on the Council of Ministers is virtually identical. Net contributors do not want to reduce the percentage, but Spain, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Estonia are prepared to be flexible as long at the type of payments and the principle are guaranteed. The Commissioner warned that a reduction of 2% would lead to costs of a further €3.9 billion.
Member states' delegations and the European Commission are reluctant to agree to a change in the co-financing rate and, to a lesser extent, the pre-financing rate, which the Parliament would like to see increased. For pre-financing, the budget profile will have to be respected even if the financing rate changes, says the Commission, which believes that the only rates that could be increased are the annual ones, as long as this does not impact on the total amount allocated to the budget.
This debate will breathe new life into the three-way talks, the next meeting of which is scheduled for Wednesday 2 October. The Council and the Commission are optimistic, but realistic. There is little chance of reaching agreement on the 2 October meeting, the last meeting before the Parliament's regional development committee votes on the issue on 14 October. (MD/transl.fl)