The Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Creţu, has drawn up a balance sheet of the reflection exercise carried out by the European Commission on the future of cohesion policy. This confirms certain positions that are already known, such as the determination to create a body of single rules and the aim to reduce the scope of regional policy. This balance sheet was provided during a speech to the EU Committee of the Regions (CoR) cohesion policy and territorial budget committee (COTER) on Wednesday 27 September in Brussels.
The Commissioner confirmed, “First of all, and I think Gunther is with me on this, cohesion policy can only be a policy for all the Member States and regions of the EU”. She had already driven this message home on several other occasions (see EUROPE 11817). According to the Commissioner the real question has to be tackled and this focuses on cohesion policy objectives before looking at how to implement it. The Commissioner said that with this in mind she believed, “we need to have a frank discussion on what cohesion policy should focus on”.
The Commissioner provided a number of ways of moving forward: the trans-European network and R&D financing projects that can be better managed through other “systems” as well as social integration and migrant policies that “can only be organised locally”. The same applies to urban regeneration and industrial transformation, which have to “reflect” regional characteristics
The Commissioner considers it necessary to combine investment with reform, a proposal she also developed elsewhere (see EUROPE 11817), by giving a greater role to administration on the task force model for helping lagging regions and on the basis of what has been done in the eastern regions of Poland (see EUROPE 11799) and Italy.
As for simplification, Ms Creţu repeated how she was determined to have a single series of rules for structural funds, with a minimum of specific rules for each fund. She then referred to the goal of developing a single fund for economic, social and territorial development. She then placed emphasis on simplified costs.
To conclude, Ms Creţu indicated that she would produce precise proposals by the end of the year. On Monday 9 October, the Commissioner is expected to present the seventh cohesion report, in an effort to draw up a balance sheet on the impact of cohesion policy. This report will also help to develop new cohesion policy. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)