Bratislava, 11/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - The Committee of the Regions (CoR) has sent a strong message to the European institutions and member states to tackle the shortfall in public investment and allow greater flexibility in the implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact.
These demands are included in the main points in the Bratislava Declaration adopted on Friday 8 July during the European Summit of Regions and Cities. The stated objective in the declaration seeks to ensure a better synergy between public and private funds in the long term.
Many members are concerned about the deepening inequalities between the regions. The CoR President, Markku Markkula, was the first of these to point this out and in his opinion the future of cohesion policy can be summed up in the following dilemma “do more with less”. The President was therefore of the opinion that Brexit would subsequently lead to a cut in the Cohesion Policy project (see other article). Corina Cretu, in this connection, expressed her concern on 27 June on the Romanian TV channel Digi24 TV that the consequences on the overall European budget of the United Kingdom leaving the EU would involve a 15% cut, with subsequent ramifications on Cohesion Policy.
The conclusions drawn by the significant number of Commissioners attending the events, with the noticeable exception of Commissioner Cretu, go in the same direction. The same message was repeated by Vice Presidents Jyrki Katainen and Maros Sefcovic, as well as the Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc: the future of Cohesion Policy will be closely linked to greater private investment. Commissioner Bulc informed EUROPE that Cohesion Policy faced two major challenges: improving the efficiency of ESI funding and managing the shortfall in public funds. She informed EUROPE that “We have to improve the way in which we combine the funding and financing available to have a 'smarter' policy”. The First Vice President of the CoR, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, warned against exaggerating the virtues of private instruments. He believes that even if Cohesion Policy is “smarter”, it will be able to do nothing if there is no longer any public budget.
The Juncker Plan has outlined what the future financial instruments could consist of in combination with Cohesion Policy, Commissioner Bulc explained. The latter believes that the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI), the strong arm of the Juncker Investment Plan, is beginning to show its worth. This affirmation was not accepted at face value by the regions and cities, however, which see, on the contrary, an instrument that causes regional inequality (EUROPE 11493).
The challenges involved in combining Structural Investment Funds with the EFSI occupied much of the discussions between the different regional stakeholders and Vice President Frans Timmermans, during a meeting at the end of June (EUROPE 11584).
Introducing greater flexibility in the implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact has been the message hammered home by the CoR (EUROPE 11253) and other organisations for a long time, as it has been with the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) (EUROPE 11570). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)