Brussels, 28/08/2015 (Agence Europe) - Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu announced in her speech at the 55th congress of the European Regional Science Association (ESRA) that she wanted to begin as of now thinking about the future of cohesion policy after 2020.
In the course of her speech on EU regional policy, Cretu set out three areas for priority action: - improving national and regional institutional set-ups and good governance in the use of European funding by making administration simpler for recipients, an area on which a high-level simplification group is already working (see EUROPE 11356); - combatting fraud and error in the use of European funding; - preparing the future of cohesion policy after the current multiannual framework, taking the conclusions of two decades of accumulated experience and information as the starting point.
The commissioner again stated that she would bring forward a report by the end of the year on the outcome of negotiations on partnership agreements and programmes within the framework of the difficult reform of cohesion policy (see EUROPE 11198). She indicated that she would like to see increased debate on the future of cohesion policy in 2016, given that the Commission intends to present legislative proposals for the period after 2020 in 2018. She said that, for it to be able to do so, the Commission was getting down to work as of now, taking the work of the high-level simplification group as its basis, along with ex ante assessments and independent studies and reports. A high-level conference, to be attended by the European Parliament and the Seville-based Joint Research Centre, will be held at the start of 2016 to draft an initial assessment of implementation of the new cohesion policy.
In the course of her speech, Cretu also reiterated that the absolute priorities during her term of office were ensuring that European funding had a measurable impact in helping the real economy achieve the goals of the EUROPE 2020 strategy, supporting the Juncker investment plan - which hopes to raise €315 billion by 2017 (see EUROPE 11364) - and achieving the energy union and the digital single market.
The commissioner was one of the main guests invited to address the congress, which was held in Lisbon, Portugal, from 25 to 28 August. The principal objective of the event was to bring together all the European regional associations to discuss the issues related to the economic development of the regions (see EUROPE 11376). (Pascal Hansens)