Brussels, 06/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR) adopted a political message on the 'Juncker plan' at the meeting of its political bureau in late February. Whilst agreeing with the European Commission on the need to “revive investment in Europe”, the organisation had a number of questions to ask.
CPMR's main question relates to the use of the financial instruments laid down by the investment plan. “Some regions are already using market instruments, with a great deal of success, (but) not many of them are able to rely on the involvement of the private sector”, the organisation notes. This calls for a certain amount of expertise: there is therefore a need to ensure that the regions which do not use them are not “de facto excluded from the Juncker plan”. The organisation also questions the criteria used to select the projects to be supported by the plan. It calls for the creation of jobs and sustainable development to be taken into account, rather than just economic viability. This prompts CPMR to point out that regions have valuable expertise in “forging a link between public and private investors in areas conducive to growth and employment”. Lastly, CPMR questions the announcement that money is to be taken from the 'Horizon 2020' and Connecting Europe Facility budgets to pay for the Juncker plan: “the regions feel that this transfer of funding must not translate into reduced ambition of the Union regarding the objectives” of these two programmes.
At its meeting, the political bureau of CPMR also launched a campaign to “improve the accessibility of the maritime regions and promote their situation in local transport flows”. A conference on this theme, jointly organised with the Region of Provence Alpes Côtes d'Azur, will be held in Marseille on 16 April. Lastly, the bureau created a platform to debate maritime investments, in line with the intelligent regional specialisation strategies and European funds. (Jean Comte)