Brussels, 22/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - This autumn, the Italian presidency has planned two important ministerial meetings to implement cohesion policy. Secretary of State Graziano Delrio (Regional Cohesion Policies) provided the details of the agenda to MEPs on the European Parliament's regional development committee (REGI) on Monday 22 September. MEPs also want to include the issue of structural fund payment problems on the agenda.
Key meetings. European ministers for cohesion policy will be meeting up for an informal meeting in Milan on 10 October next to develop ideas regarding the complementarity between cohesion policy and macro-economic governance. This is an essential theme for the Italian presidency. The Italian minister stressed to MEPs that supporting investment for growth did not mean reducing budgetary rigour, quite the opposite, because it would mean that the latter was more sustainable. These ministers will be meeting up a month later for the General Affairs Council on 19 November, confirmed Delrio, where they are expected to “work towards the adoption of modalities for applying investments” linked to structural funds he explained. This will involve beginning a “more intense” political dialogue, as pursued in cohesion policy reform. The Secretary of State also provided assurances that the presidency would do everything it could to ensure adoption of the delegated acts in the new cohesion policy as soon as possible (including public-private partnership and irregularities).
Payments. MEPs expressed their wish to be involved in these meetings and emphasised to the Secretary of State the need to pay attention to structural fund payment problems during these discussions. Lambert Van Nistelrooij (EPP, Netherlands) warned that “if we want the authorities and investors to trust us, it is impossible for the EU not to take charge of its part of the payments”. Delrio admitted that “the commitments are meaningless if there is no budgetary provision for payments”. Although he admitted that he had not taken any emergency measures on this subject before his meeting with the REGI committee, he did, however, provide assurances that the Italian presidency was committed to completely resolving all the various problems. (MD)