Simplifying EU cohesion policy will be a key issue in the debate on Wednesday 16 November, the second day of the General Affairs Council, between member state ministers and Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu and the chair of the high-level group on simplification, Siim Kallas.
The discussion will take place over lunch and will focus on simplifying the structural and investment funds in the period after 2020. The European Commission is beginning to explore various avenues for reshaping this policy and making it more effective. It hopes to be able to present a legislative proposal in 2018 (see EUROPE 11662).
Simplification will be the watchword on the second day of the Council which will include the 2014-2020 period. In the morning, the Slovak Presidency of the Council will update ministers on the state of play on amendment to the regulation on extending the special ESI funding arrangements for Greece and Cyprus (see other article), and particularly on the simplification measures for the ESI fund for the period 2014-2020 proposed by the Commission (see EUROPE 11665 and 11642).
On this point, ministers are expected to advocate six major measures: - putting in place a raft of simple, clear and less stringent rules for the ESI fund, with the emphasis on an integrated approach; - harmonisation between the ESI fund and the other EU funds and policies in the interests of funding recipients; - easier access to simplified costs (see EUROPE 11644); - promotion of a simpler, more streamlined shared management model that is performance-based rather than based on compliance with rules; - evaluation of the implementation mechanisms of other European policies that could be applied to cohesion policy and the introduction of differentiation in the implementation of ESI programmes – a controversial option for a number of regions, French regions in particular (see EUROPE 11661).
Lastly, ministers will discuss the results of cohesion policy implemented in the years 2007-2013, using the recent Commission report (see EUROPE 11641) as their starting point, and the initial lessons drawn from the current period which has been marked by long delays in implementing the operational programmes (see EUROPE 11549). The discussion will be guided by three questions from the Slovak Presidency on the balance between the various objectives of cohesion policy, the effectiveness of the measures undertaken and the quality of communication with citizens and political decision-makers. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)