Brussels, 11/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - In a political declaration on EU competitiveness adopted by the EPP in Strasbourg on Tuesday 8 March (see other article), the group proposes strengthening synergies between cohesion policy funding and that of the other EU policies and, in this context, calls for better articulation of cohesion policy with the European Semester.
This announcement is not likely to please the great majority of regions, which fear that they will bear the cost of any such strengthening and will be barred from access to regional funding in the event of a legal case over macro-economic imbalance (see EUROPE 11506) as France is facing.
“Cohesion policy is the EU's only policy to boost growth and jobs at territorial level. Breaking it up in the post-2020 period would send a wrong signal to European citizens and would seriously compromise economic recovery in European regions”, Eleni Marianou, secretary general of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions, told EUROPE.
Michael Schneider (EPP, Germany), Committee of the Regions (CoR) rapporteur on the future of cohesion policy, told EUROPE that he will “ensure that the next generation of investment funds in Europe, in close coordination with the post-2020 cohesion policy, does not sway from this objective whilst also remaining flexible enough to work in synergy with other EU policies”.
Schneider has, right from the adoption of his first opinion in 2012, supported greater flexibility, CoR sources say. At the time, he came out, from the very start, against thematic concentration proposals, an innovation for the 2014-2020 period which, in the view of many observers, has led to use of European strategic investment (ESI) funding being more rigid.
“If regional and local authorities were better integrated in the process of developing the European Semester, this wouldn't be an issue”, a source said.
CoR President Markku Markkula did not consider it appropriate to give an opinion on the document.
The issue of flexibility has come into sharper focus since the migration crisis came to the fore and the Commission's introduction of corrective measures (see EUROPE 11388). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)