MEPs on the European Parliament’s regional development committee fear that Brexit will impact on the Cohesion Policy budget for post-2020, and a provisional study suggests it will also impact on the current period.
The MEPs foresee potential ‘adjustments’ to the Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) and the EU’s Solidarity Fund (EUSF) in the second part of the 2014-2020 financial cycle. The question of a backlog of unpaid claims will certainly become acute at the end of the 2014-2020 period. Overall, the MEPs feel that there will be ‘complications’ due to parallel negotiations with the United Kingdom over it leaving the EU, particularly calculating the statistical basis for determining regions’ eligibility for European funds.
On a positive note, the MEPs say that Brexit will not have any impact on the current negotiations on two crucial items of EU legislation; the support programme for structural reforms – which has just reached interinstitutional agreement (see EUROPE 11721) – and the ‘omnibus’ regulation (see EUROPE 11642).
After general considerations, the MEPs cite a number of tangible examples. Firstly, the legal question of a number of aspects specific to the United Kingdom in the regulation on European funds (1303/2013), notably the recital on relations between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom (Recital 25) and the derogations foreseen for the UK when it comes to suspending payment commitments relating to macroconditionality (Article 23, paragraph 13).
Moreover, the MEPs wonder about the continuity of surveillance and monitoring of implementation of the Structural and Investment Funds after 2020, in that the ex-post assessments for the current period will last until 2024. Likewisem for the financial management and finalisation of programmes that are scheduled for 2025.
More broadly, the MEPs hope the inter-regional programmes will continue into the future, even when the UK has left the EU.
The Committee of the Regions will meet on 28 February to discuss how Brexit will impact the EU’s Cohesion Policy beyond 2020.
See: http://bit.ly/2kQKrL6 (Original version in French Pascal Hansens)