On Wednesday 15 November ministers in charge of regional policy will hold a discussion behind closed doors at the General Affairs Council (GAC) in Brussels. Discussions will focus on certain elements of European cohesion policy.
The Council will also adopt, without debate, the conclusions on the synergies for and simplification of post-2020 cohesion policy. They will also examine the state of negotiations on the “omnibus” regulation.
In a letter from the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Estonian Minister for Public Administration stated how he had arranged for his counterparts to discuss post-2020 cohesion policy on the basis of the 7th cohesion policy report (see EUROPE 11879).
To this effect, the Presidency prepared a specific working paper that proposes to structure the talks around six points: the political domains that should be covered by cohesion policy in the future; the balance between stability and flexibility when ensuring long-term investment and tackling new challenges; the transition between programming periods; the link between structural reforms and cohesion policy; the introduction of a raft of common rules for all funds; a radical simplification of the modalities for implementing cohesion policy.
Two sensitive subjects therefore appear to have been left out: the question of the budget dedicated to cohesion policy in the next multiannual financial framework (see EUROPE 11901) and the project to link the allocation of structural and investment funds to respect for the rule of law (see EUROPE 11742).
According to two diplomatic sources anticipating very “heated debates” that will focus on the “substance” of cohesion policy, the Estonian Presidency would like an open debate behind closed doors, during which ministers will be free to tackle all the different subjects. The next European budget will not be subject to debate by the member states until February, according to one source. This same source added that the question of the cohesion policy budget was unlikely to be really debated until under the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2018.
Ministers will also adopt, without debate, the conclusions on the synergies and the simplification of cohesion policy. According to the most recent version of the draft text, of which EUROPE has obtained a copy, ministers will call on the Commission to analyse the complementarities and overlaps between the different financial instruments in view of preparing the future policy. They will highlight the need to apply “similar” rules for “similar projects”, irrespective of the funds and will also examine the possibility of aligning financing rules with the member states and regions.
The member states are also expected to support the approach proposed by the high-level group on the so called “single audit” simplification, to avoid repetitive and over detailed controls for final beneficiaries and the national administrations alike. They are also expected to reduce the level of detail in the future regulation, which is the main source of errors committed. A number of interesting points include the fact that ministers will be proposing the use of a simplified and more coherent system of indicators to facilitate the impact studies for different funds and streamline the current ex ante conditionalities.
ESI. Finally, the Estonian Presidency will provide a public update on the progress achieved on the “omnibus” regulation focusing on structural and investment funds, whose inter-institutional negotiations began in September. The Presidency will do this by highlighting points relating to improvements to the regulation involving the common provisions (Regulation1303/2013). The Presidency would like to reach a political agreement by the end of this year. An inter-institutional agreement was found on the part of the text focusing on Common Agricultural Policy (see EUROPE 11883). A point will also be made relating to the technical amendments made by the European Commission to said regulation by delegated acts in October. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)