Brussels, 19/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - Speaking on behalf of the GUE/NGL at the European Parliament, Younous Omarjee (France), denounced the decision taken by the Regional Development Committee (REGI) on Thursday 15 October, to appoint a special rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs to closely monitor specific aid measures to Greece (see EUROPE 11279).
The stated aim, according to Point10 of the coordinators' meeting, is to add an additional stage to monitor appropriate implementation of Cohesion Policy in Greece. The radical left MEP sharply criticised this initiative, which he believes “would mean including Cohesion Policy in the same outlook and logic governing supervision of the 'adjustment programmes' implementation for Greece within the context of economic and budgetary supervision”.
This relates to a proposal made by the EPP coordinator, Lambert van Nistelrooij (Netherlands). The EPP has always been in favour of such a proposal, indicated one source from the European Parliament. This same source added that originally, the group wanted to amend the European Commission proposal, before obtaining a majority within the other political groups of the European Parliament, in an effort to adopt a simplified procedure to ensure the measures taken were implemented before 31 December (see EUROPE 11381). Our source explained that “this, however, was not a sine qua non condition” (for adopting the specific Commission measures: Ed).
As part of the follow-up, the committee is expected to send a delegation to Greece during the second half of 2016 and arrange for the Greek minister in charge of Cohesion Policy to provide a report back on appropriate implementation of structural and investment funds. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)