At a conference on the future of the cohesion policy organised by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) on Tuesday 28 March, Jan Olbrycht MEP (EPP, Poland) raised the option of extending the framework of the current budget regulation for a few years.
The Polish MEP said the Brexit talks would hugely complicate the negotiations on the upcoming multi-annual financial framework (MFF) and consequently cohesion policy too.
In his view, the first solution would be to maintain the current system for two to five more years to avoid launching particularly complex negotiations in too short a time frame.
He also raised the possibility of negotiating a temporary MFF for the five years from 2021 to 2026, barely mentioning the option of negotiating a stable "system" for the long-term.
Link between cohesion and solidarity. On the question of attributing the European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds for respect of the rule of law and managing migration – an idea germinating in the European institutions, but which the regions are sceptical about (see EUROPE 11742) – Olbrycht was very clear: this will happen in the future cohesion policy. One should not be naïve, he said, pointing out the European Parliament’s and Commission’s desire to sanction some Visegrad member states. It is not the case for the moment, he said, but it absolutely will be in the future because it will be legal.
A cohesion policy for the poorest regions. Against the backdrop of growing budget pressure, Olbrycht did not rule out the possibility of the future Cohesion Policy focusing only on the poorest regions, but warned that with the United Kingdom leaving the EU, the EU’s total GDP would decrease, which will automatically shift a number of regions into a higher category if the current definitions for the three categories of regions is maintained. European Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Crețu seems to have already ruled out a cohesion policy that only covers the least developed regions (see EUROPE 11736). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)