Brussels, 11/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - In a resolution adopted on Wednesday 11 May (546 votes to 73, with 62 abstentions) on the delay that has been noted in implementation of the 2014-2020 cohesion policy, the European Parliament asks the Commission to undertake a series of measures to speed things up.
In substance, the resolution proposed by the chair of the regional development committee, Iskra Mihaylova (ALDE, Bulgaria), calls on the Commission to carry out an assessment of implementation of cohesion policy in order, on the one hand, to identify ways of ensuring that it is speeded up and, on the other, to learn lessons for discussions on cohesion policy post-2020.
Mihaylova says that one of the issues will be extending the mandate - in both time and remit - of the task force set up in November 2014 by Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu to help eight member states absorb European structural and investment (ESI) funds. She says that the findings have been conclusive, as, indeed, the European Court of Auditors confirmed, in the case of Greece (see EUROPE 11491). MEPs call on the Commission to submit an action plan for the task force's activities.
A further point raised by MEPs is combining ESI funds and European strategic investment funding (EFSI), in line with the Commission communication of 22 February on new guidelines for combining the two funds (see EUROPE 11496), in order to increase the leverage effect and capitalise on the Juncker plan.
“This is not an event of historic importance but a stage in the coming debate on the next cohesion policy”, said Mihaylova, pointing out that the forthcoming referendum on the UK's membership of the EU is slowing work on cohesion policy post-2020, in particular on the future priorities of the policy and the level of flexibility in the use of the funds and financial instruments.
In this context, one of the next major steps, she says, is the adoption on the Amsterdam Pact on 30 May. This will, for the first time, put in place a European urban policy, which would seem increasingly to be falling within the realm of the member states (see EUROPE 11545). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)