During the debate on the challenges of the cohesion policy on Thursday 13 October, the peripheral maritime regions told European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu of their concerns at some of the flexibility introduced in the framework of the ambitious mid-term review of the multi-annual financial framework (MFF).
The deputy president of the Conference of the Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), Enrico Rossi, flagged up the possibility that cohesion funds may be transferred, albeit on a voluntary basis, to different policies, as is provided for by the new arrangements announced by the European Commission last month (see EUROPE 11624). He acknowledged that it was necessary to bring in a certain amount of budgetary flexibility to tackle emerging challenges (such as migration), but that this should not be at the expense of the cohesion policy.
Aims and recommendations. Rossi spoke out in very strong terms against the financial instruments provided for by the Juncker plan, as he feels that these are linked to the market too much and to the regional level too little. As regards the Stability and Growth Pact, he called for national and regional expenditure made with structural and investment funds to be excluded. On this subject, the deputy president stressed the need to reinforce the ex-ante conditionality, a proposal which has also been made by the CoR (see EUROPE 11644).
Freezing of funds. The structured dialogue on freezing the structural funding commitments to Spain and Portugal was also raised. Unsurprisingly, the deputy president of the CPMR opposed any suspension, as this would be tantamount to punishing the regions for policies in which they had had no say. According to a source, the European Commission may come back with a proposal in November, once the budgetary plans have been presented on 15 October, and following the closure of the structured dialogue with the European Parliament. Differentiated treatment between these two Iberian states has been on a number of lips.
Brexit and a two-speed Europe. The only solution to relaunch a strong cohesion policy is to increase the proportion of GDP transferred to the EU, currently limited to around 1%, Rossi went on to stress. He later told EUROPE that Brexit was an opportunity to launch a two-speed Europe: the eurozone with a more integrated and higher budget, and the non-eurozone countries. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)