Brussels, 13/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - During a debate on access to European funds, organised by the Transport Committee on Tuesday 12 July, MEPs pointed out that in the tourism sector, structural and investment funds (ESI), as well as financial instruments, have a tendency to chiefly benefit urban areas to the disadvantage of rural regions.
Criticism focused on the fact that European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) has a specific budget of €9 billion for tourism. Several MEPs highlighted the asymmetrical breakdown of funds between rural and urban areas that benefited the latter, as pointed out by Jill Evans (Greens/EFA, United Kingdom) and Deirdre Clune (EPP, Ireland).
This observation was not disputed by Colin Wolfe, head of unit at the “Smart and Sustainable Growth” Skill Centre at Directorate General Regional and Urban Policy. He himself recognised the existence of such disparities, but did not wish to provide any “objective” explanations regarding the situation. According to Wolfe, they need to draw up a balance sheet with regional authorities to understand the reasons for this state of affairs.
On the other hand, the analysis was rejected by Miguel Gil-Tertre, a Member of the Cabinet for Commission Vice President, Jyrki Katainen, who said that he had been “positively surprised” by the results obtained in the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI). He believes it necessary to pool the projects to maximise the impact of the Juncker Plan. He underlined two major weaknesses in the European programmes, namely, the lack of communication and the complexity of the rules.
The Juncker Plan is continuing to make progress. Nonetheless, many regional bodies have expressed concern at the unequal treatment that has been created, with this plan mainly benefiting the regions that have the best human and financial resources (EUROPE 11591, 11493).
At a more general level, the President of the European Parliament Transport Committee, Michael Cramer (Greens/EFA, Germany), regretted the absence of a budgetary line specifically focusing on tourism, which would have helped create greater transparency for sector stakeholders. Wolfe replied that it had been difficult to obtain a clear line on tourism. This was because investment to the tourism sector is strongly linked to other financing areas in transport and infrastructure. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)