Brussels, 09/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - In two reports that it adopted on Wednesday 9 September, the European Parliament looked at the current situation involving implementation of Cohesion Policy and put forward precise recommendations to improve its management and tackle any shortcomings.
The report by Tamas Deutsch (EPP, Hungary) was adopted by a large majority (552 votes in favour, 72 against, with 68 abstentions). It focuses on investments promoting job creation and growth within the context of Cohesion Policy. In this connection, it puts forward a range of different measures such as a thoroughgoing examination of the objectives and co-financing rates for the fund, enhanced action in developmentally disadvantaged regions and administrative simplification. Finally, the EP warns against the transferring of funds from Cohesion Policy to the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).
Deutsch highlighted the importance of the sixth report on Cohesion Policy from the European Commission that seeks to promote better use of the European fund and attain the EUROPE 2020 Strategy objectives in this period of crisis. Nonetheless, he did warn during the debate that there were concerns about the lack of liquidity, which was “undermining the credibility of the European programmes”, as well as the deepening of socio-economic disparities between the regions. This concern was shared by a number of MEPs. He insisted that the funds should go to the least advanced regions first of all and called for European fund management to be simplified. He also regretted that in the Commission report the amount going to SMEs was too low.
Cohesion Policy accounts for almost €630 billion for the 2014-2020 period, as pointed out by the Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu. The operational programmes included in this policy were almost all adopted and the pre-financing amounts transferred. Cretu illustrated the emblematic case of Greece, where structural and investment funds represented around 75% of public investment. The Commissioner also referred to the series of measures to facilitate the sharing of good practices and provide information about the Union's cohesion policy. She concluded that “it is now up to those on the ground to use these tools and make the best use of the funds”.
Urban dimension of European policies. The report by Kirsten Westphal (S&D, Germany) was also adopted by a large majority (545 votes in favour, 115 against, with 38 abstentions). This report calls for the urban specificity to be taken into better account in all European policies. It advocates the inclusion of the urban dimension in all European policies by taking into account “the urban acquis” and in each case carrying out impact studies on small, medium and large-sized cities. The EP is particularly calling for a clarification of the roles of the different European funds and better interaction between them in the context of Cohesion Policy activity and the other Community Programmes (Life, Horizon 2020…).
The German MEP explained that “three out of four Europeans live in an urban areas” despite European cities being very vulnerable from a social and environmental point of view. The German MEP was speaking during the plenary debate on Tuesday. During the debate, she also pointed out that in the future, more than 50% of European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) would go to the cities. In this respect Westphal indicated that all cities, whatever their size, should be taken to account and not just the larger ones. This opinion was shared by Younous Omarjee (GUE/NGL, France) who said that they also needed to help small and medium-sized cities enter the era of globalisation. The German MEP particularly highlighted the need for the urban dimension to be included in the elaboration of all European policies and that each legislative project be accompanied by an impact study on cities. Finally, Westphal regretted that there was no Commissioner whose role was entirely dedicated to the issue of urban policy and cities and expressed a wish for Commissioner Cretu to take this issue into hand.
The Commissioner said that she understood the European Parliament's expectations regarding urban questions. She also noted that there were many who wanted urban policy to remain within the remit of the member states. She pointed out that €80 billion from the ERDF had “directly or indirectly” been injected into regional policy, including an envelope of almost €15 billion that was directly managed by the cities themselves.
Many MEPs called for greater solidarity in regional policy in an effort to rectify the disparities between the different regions. Gerolf Annemans (ENF, Belgium) deplored the fact that billions had been lost in regional policy, without any notable improvements and in this connection he alluded to Wallonia. He therefore advocated greater sovereignty of member states in this area.
In an effort to draw a conclusion, the Commissioner pointed out that despite the need to finetune Cohesion Policy, Europe would have no interface without this policy and again pointed to the example of Greece which “before its accession had been living in the last century (Ed, the 19th century)”. (Pascal Hansens)