Brussels, 15/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - The concise mandate conferred on Michel Lebrun (EPP, Belgium), the President of the Committee of the Regions since June, will not prevent him tackling sensitive subjects head-on. Lebrun is actively endeavouring to obtain sufficient room for manoeuvre for investments co-financed through structural funds. He believes that youth unemployment, in particular, should be considered as exceptional circumstances justifying activation of the flexibility clause in the Stability and Growth Pact. (Interview conducted by Marie-Pauline Desset)
Agence Europe: During their informal meeting on Friday 10 October, ministers responsible for cohesion began a reflection exercise on the relationship between economic governance and cohesion policy. What is the Committee of the Regions advocating in this regard?
Michel Lebrun: We think that the emphasis on the territorial dimension of the 'European Semester' could improve the entire process and genuinely ensure greater cohesion policy efficiency. Apparently, there are no areas where we can discuss this policy more precisely but which does, all the same, account for a third of the European budget. The difficulty resides in the fact that the composition, even from ministers responsible for structural funds, is extremely disparate in the different countries. At one time we were discussing the possibility of setting up a 'Cohesion' Council but the difficulty is real enough and therefore, we are shifting more towards a group within the Ecofin Council or the General Affairs Council, which will tackle the issue of cohesion with ministers responsible for cohesion.
Flexibility in the Stability Pact was also debated at a ministerial level and will undoubtedly be referred to at the European Summit on 23-24 October. What is the Committee of the Regions proposing in this area?
Obviously, we are observing that a number of regions and local authorities are currently unable to invest in European policy for obtaining their share of co-financing as part of structural funds. This is quite simply because their share is included in general national debt and they are therefore experiencing limitations in investing them. The rigidity of the Stability and Growth Pact rule means that these public investments are difficult to mobilise. We are introducing the notion of flexibility into it, which is still vague, because no one has defined it, except for in cases of 'exceptional circumstances'. It is necessary to more accurately define what an element of flexibility is in this context and which could be exempt from overall debt in any policy carried out in the context of structural funds because Europe has control on these kinds of investments. I spoke about this with the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barros and Commissioner Katainen. I think that this reflection exercise should be carried out and that inflexibility is not necessarily going to allow for this problem to be tackled.
Does this problem also have an effect on the 'Youth Guarantee', whose implementation has been delayed?
There are countries that do have projects but not the majority of them. Is it not indeed exceptional circumstances that in some states 50% of young people are unemployed? When we realise that these European policies are pre-financed by the regions, cities and states, while waiting for Europe to reimburse them, we become aware that the difficulty is further reinforced. In addition to this, Europe is unable to pay on time and we notice that all this conjures up a rather explosive mixture. Why does the Commission not require member states to develop action on the youth guarantee within a given timeframe? I think that this matter is really urgent. If the EU wants to be credible, it really has to respond to these concerns, whether they come from Spain or Greece. We have had €6 billion available for the past year and the states are not taking action. I find this very curious.
You mention delayed payments. How can we avoid penalising cohesion beneficiaries?
We cannot say that the EU is lagging behind because it is actually the states that, year after year, reduce their contribution to the European budget. When we have to shift to the disbursement of what is planned, member states reduce their contribution, which obviously means the Union cannot pay.
During her hearing, the forthcoming Commissioner for Regional Development, Corina Cretu, was asked about this subject. What do you think of her performance at the hearing in general?
I personally met her before the hearing and I was very happy to learn that she wanted to be the voice of the cities and regions. She has therefore directly gone to the core of the mission conferred upon her. I think that the way in which she answered questions was very pertinent and she obviously knows the subject well. Her role will be to optimise operational programmes because for the time being, it is being said that they are delayed. I am convinced that she will be a key partner of the Committee of the Regions.
In this connection, what would you recommend to prevent programme launch delays mounting up?
Interest has now been demonstrated in the Commission giving the go-ahead for the documents the states have available. There are a lot of operational programmes that are still not ready to be approved by the European Commission. If rectifications are required, they should be immediately pointed out to the states so that they can reorientate certain programmes. The states are waiting to implement them and if there is no response from the Commission, that creates problems. Moreover, following Commission approval, several months is still required for them to be implemented on the ground. This is an urgent issue: 2014 is practically behind us and very few programmes are operational.
The presidency of the Committee of the Regions will be reshuffled next February. Will you be a candidate for your own post?
If the alternating principle prevails, I will not stand again. My mandate involves concluding the term of office but I am not going to behave as if my mandate is finished. I'm going to take action on the understanding that together with my colleagues, whoever is my successor, they will find themselves in a 'house' that is located at the same level as the new Commission and European Parliament.