Brussels, 29/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - It appears that COREPER has brought the negotiations on cohesion reform to an end. This was effectively achieved by the adoption on Tuesday 29 October of the compromise draft reached on the evening of 24 October in the institutional trilogue meeting in Strasbourg. This compromise focuses on sensitive political issues, including the very controversial macro-economic conditionalities and now makes a general agreement possible on cohesion policy reform. Cohesion 2.0 could therefore possibly apply from 1 January 2014 for the programming cycle if the next approval stages are successfully concluded.
Macro-conditionality. The European Parliament and Council finally reached a balanced agreement on macro-conditionality, the mechanism on which Parliament had serious misgivings and which led to the stalling of negotiations over the past few months. Including this factor, however, in cohesion policy is still flagged up and the Commission could easily suspend structural fund payments if a member state fails to respect the EU's economic conditions if this were required. Commitments and payments could come under threat but the Parliament managed to obtain assurances that any freeze would only affect 50% of payments (as part of corrective measures). The level at which payments could be suspended would also have to take into account socio-economic factors such as unemployment, poverty and contraction of GDP, as well as the level of progress achieved in the programming cycle. The Parliament maintained its right of scrutiny over all decision-making procedures affecting the suspension of funds, by way of structural dialogue with the Commission, in the event of macro-economic conditions applying.
Other questions. A 6% performance reserve was reached, the other politically sensitive issue, but this had already been settled before macro-conditionality. Pre-financing calculation rates were also amended so as not to put pressure on payment profiles whilst remaining at the same pre-financing levels throughout the programming period. Finally, co-financing rates for Cyprus and outermost regions were revised upwards.
Other votes. This compromise remains the cornerstone of the overall agreement on policy reform because the rest had already been negotiated and approved by the parliamentary committee responsible for regional development last July. The latter will vote on the compromise on 7 November, probably during a special meeting, so that the plenary session can adopt the whole legislative package during the same month. Notwithstanding any last-minute about-turns, the whole legislative raft should therefore be ready in time for the launch of the 2014-2020 operational programmes on 1 January 2014. (MP/trans.fl)