Brussels, 28/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - Member states could do better in their partnership contracts and operational programmes that will be negotiated over the next few months, according to European Commissioner for Regional Development Johannes Hahn. At the informal Council in Athens on 25 April, Hahn formulated his recommendations on the basis of the draft partnership contracts already received from member states (with the exception of Luxembourg's, which is expected this week), as well as the operational programme proposals from seven member states.
The Commissioner promised that his services would do everything they could to ensure that the partnership contracts were swiftly adopted - Ed: linking member states with the Commission for payment of 2014-2020 structural and investment funds. Those submitted by Germany and Denmark could be the first to be signed. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovakia have already received Commission observations on their partnership proposals. The Commission, however, provided assurances that speed would not be prioritised over quality of content.
Eighty operational programmes have already been submitted by seven member states and the commissioner suggested that analysis of them would take two or three months but that, at this stage, he had already observed that improvements could be made.
Overall, the commissioner noted that, during negotiations, emphasis should be on focusing European funds on sustainable growth in member states and their regions. He warned that there would no longer be “business as usual” with a “few roads here and some regional airports there” kind of approach. He also pointed out that reform of cohesion policy placed the emphasis on results and that there was also a possibility of doing better, particularly in operational programmes, to achieve “clear and measurable objectives” and “realistic targets” in order to lay the groundwork for a results-based approach. He also highlighted the member states' commitment to ensure that good programmes were up and running, with preconditions met so that European funds can be released. (MD)