Brussels, 14/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is expected to adopt a partnership agreement with Ireland, the last country to respond to this appeal, on Wednesday 19 November. This signature comes just at the right moment because on Monday, the ministers responsible for cohesion, will also discuss negotiating and adoption procedures for these agreements, during the General Affairs Council, which will be focusing on cohesion policy (see other article). The Commission will inform the delegations about the most recent developments affecting this procedure, which from then on, should be completed.
The European Commission is now proceeding to the adoption of the operational programmes of member states. Recently, the programmes of the French regions of Aquitaine, Auvergne, Franche-Comté and Languedoc-Roussillon, were approved for the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund by the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu. The latter recently underlined in her priorities contained on her blog that this would no longer be, “business as usual when undertaking her work” and she would be ensuring that the projects were adopted in time, without compromising their quality. (MD)