Several European organisations representing local and regional authorities expressed concern on Monday 13 November about certain budget scenarios envisaged by the European Commission for the future of cohesion policy. One of these scenarios includes up to 30% in budget reductions compared to the current period budget. The project to create a joint human capital development fund also appears to be causing these organisations some concern.
It should be pointed out that last week, EUROPE reported that the European Commission had asked its services assess the implications of reductions ranging from 15 to 30% in the cohesion policy budget as part of the next multiannual financial framework (see EUROPE 11901). EUROPE also reported on the project to create an “umbrella” fund for the development of human capital (see EUROPE 11902).
The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) expressed serious concerns in a press release. The president of the organisation, Vasco Cordeiro, stated, that “Europe has never needed cohesion policy as much as it does today. Any reduction in the post-2020 cohesion policy’s goals would be extremely damaging to the European Union and its citizens”.
Above all, the objective of merging the European Social Fund (ESF) with a single social investment fund threatened the integrity of cohesion policy, according to the CPMR. According to the organisation, the social cohesion policy objective contained in the treaties is mainly carried out thanks to financing from the European Social Fund and in a sense, must remain a part of cohesion policy, “in order to guarantee the effective implementation on the ground of creating new strategies for a social Europe”.
The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) is also concerned. One source from the organisation informed us that, “these three scenarios are causing the CEMR concern because a potential budget cut would mean removing local organisations from the European project”. This source, on the contrary, is calling for an “ambitious budget” to respond to regional needs and those of citizens. With regard to creating an “umbrella” project, the organisation says that it is concerned that a budget reduction that could have a “very negative” impact on the ability of the local authorities to finance regional development projects, as well as on their ability to tackle social challenges arising on their respective territory.
One source from the Committee of the Regions (CoR) explained to EUROPE that these scenarios had been known about at an internal level and that this was one of the main reasons why the CoR, together with the other regional organisations, was seeking to set up an alliance for cohesion policy. The CoR explained that its main objective would be to prevent cohesion policy having to pay for the cost of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. Pierluigi Boda, the CoR press attaché and cohesion policy expert, explained in a personal capacity on his twitter account that these kinds of budget cuts would mean “centralising” the European project “instead of bringing it closer to citizens”.
Younous Omarjee MEP (GUE/NGL, France), Vice president of the European Parliament’s regional development committee stated, “We are all mobilising to prevent the worst scenarios affecting cohesion policy from happening”. The MEP expressed his total confidence in the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, who, according to him, had provided public reassurances about maintaining an “ambitious” cohesion policy beyond 2020, when he addressed the Conference of Presidents of the Outermost Regions. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)