Brussels, 07/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Addressing a high-level conference on the future of cohesion policy organised by the Committee of the Regions (CoR) on Thursday 3 March, Nicola De Michelis, head of the Private Office of Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu, said that, in his view, the link between macro-economic conditionality and cohesion policy will have to strengthened.
He believes that, in the future, two strands will stand out: on the one hand, greater flexibility in the structural and investment funds available and, more generally, stricter macro-economic conditionality.
The risk is that this greater flexibility works to the detriment of the budgetary allocation for cohesion policy, commented a source, regretting indeed that the very principle of macro-economic conditionality is not discussed more, discussion now only focusing on how close the relationship should be between the said macro-economic conditionality and cohesion policy.
The European Commission is looking to present a proposal next year. At the CoR currently, it is all hands to the pump to influence negotiations before the proposal is brought forward. “We have to act as quickly as possible because, once the proposals have been made, there is very much less room for manoeuvre”, said a source close to the matter.
Since December 2014, the CoR has been on high alert. Its position remains unchanged: rather than making cuts to cohesions policy, which is still the EU's only genuine policy of solidarity, it should be strengthened and its effectiveness increased by focusing on making it simpler and tackling the so-called “gold-plating”, the regulatory overload at European, national and regional levels.
Michael Schneider (EPP member in the CoR, Germany) will present an opinion on the future of cohesion policy. Petr Osvald (PES, Czech Republic) is to be the rapporteur on the opinion on simplification.
During an exchange of views with members of the European Parliament in January of this year, Commissioner Cretu expressed her preference for a flexible interpretation of macro-economic conditionality (see EUROPE 11468). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)