Brussels, 16/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - In discussion with members of the European Parliament's regional development (REGI) committee on the urban agenda and ex post evaluation of the 2007-2013 period, on Wednesday 15 June, Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu repeated her willingness to use indicators other than GDP to determine the cohesion policy budgets allocated to regions.
“As far as I know, GDP is the only recognised indicator. But, of course, we can take into account other criteria, such as job creation, poverty and social indicators”, she said in response to a question from Monika Vana (Greens/EFA, Austria). Cretu spoke of the OECD having also introduced indicators of well-being in its evaluations (“better life” indicators). This is not the first time that the commissioner has expressed her willingness to consider extending indicators (see EUROPE 11488).
Her position would seem somewhat at odds with that of her head of cabinet Nicola De Michelis who, in an interview with Contexte published on Monday 13 June, said he was not enthusiastic about bringing in new indicators, adding that the member states would be little inclined to distribute money on the basis of composite indicators with arbitrary weightings. De Michelis also added that the Commission had carried out a comparative study between a theoretical map of indicator eligibility based on GDP and a map based on the United Nations human development index and other composite indicators. The conclusion, he said, was that “there is no great difference”.
Adding new indicators could be very significant for some regions, in the view of MEP and deputy chair of the REGI committee, Younous Omarjee (GUE/NGL, France). While acknowledging the reliability of GDP, he could also see its limitations. He cited the case of Martinique. Under GDP-based calculation, Martinique could see itself removed from the least-developed regions category and, as a result, face a dramatic cut in the funding allocated to it. This point was highlighted by several regions at a meeting of the Bureau of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) in Florence which put the proposal into brackets (see EUROPE 11427).
The issue is becoming more and more pressing as reflection on the future of cohesion policy is beginning and evaluation of cohesion policy from 2007 to 2013 is emerging. On Thursday 16 June, the European Commission published its provisional results for the previous period at the 7th European evaluation conference in Sofia. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)