Brussels, 13/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Committee of the Regions has flagged up an inconsistency between the emphasis recently laid on investment and budgetary flexibility by the European Commission and the threat that the European structural funds will be frozen or reprogrammed in practice. The opposition of the consultative body to any macro-economic condition placed on the implementation of the cohesion policy has resurfaced in a resolution adopted on Thursday 12 February.
The Committee of the Regions takes the view that the raft of measures governing good economic governance is likely to make the European structural funds far less reliable and effective, even though they represent a significant source of investment. The body stresses the contradiction between, on the one hand, the provisions on macro-economic conditionality and, on the other, the flexibility tolerated in the application of the Stability and Growth Pact.
The rapporteur described the guidelines as “a set of technocratic provisions that clearly cannot be implemented in practice. I'm thinking in particular about the renegotiation of the programmes and the supposed effectiveness of this, not to mention all the red tape that would be involved”, said rapporteur Bernard Soulage (PES, France).
The Committee of the Regions points out that the local and regional authorities would be unjustly penalised by a reprogramming, as they are not responsible for the national excessive public deficit, being generally constitutionally bound to keep their budgets in balance. “A Damocles' sword constantly hanging above these future investments will make them unattractive. It will also determine their leverage effect and compromise the role of local and regional authorities, which are after all the main sources of public investment in the European Union”, said rapporteur. (Marie-Pauline Desset)