The Committee of the Regions (CoR) and several organisations representing the regions have raised the alarm about some of the budgetary provisions the European Commission has put on the table to deepen Economic and Monetary Union (see EUROPE 11920).
It should be recalled that the regulation on structural funds works out the framework and allocation of a performance reserve. In the second half of 2019, the Commission will assess the performances of the regional programmes on the basis of the report for 2018, which the member states will submit to it by 30 June 2019. On the basis of this assessment, a performance reserve for each priority is expected to be allocated to programmes and priorities whose objectives have been reached.
The Commission also wants to strengthen ties between the budget process of the European Semester and the structural and investment funds by using the performance reserve (art. 20 - 22 in regulation 1303/2013) to support structural reforms in a pilot project over the 2018-2020 period. It also intends to work out the reallocated budget by way of an implementing act, a procedure that excludes the European Parliament.
The Committee of the Regions clearly rejects this idea and in a press release stated, “These proposals risk the transfer of resources from European Structural and Investment Funds to ineffective and top-down tools such as the Structural Reform Support Programme”. The President of the CoR, Karl-Heinz Lambertz (PES, Belgium), is concerned that the cohesion policy budget could be “jeopardised within the EMU deepening".
The CoR rapporteur into EMU deepening up to 2025, Christophe Rouillon (PES, France) regretted that cohesion policy funds for growth and inclusion had been reallocated to incentive programmes to support structural reforms.
One source at the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) explained to EUROPE that, “cohesion policy seems to becoming just a carrot and a stick to put in place national reforms advocated within the European Semester”. The latter added, "although this involves national reforms, without necessarily any development and cohesion objectives for the regions, there is no notion of partnership or dialogue mentioned for the reforms discussed in the European Semester”. According to this source, the Commission proposed a voluntary Structural Reform Support Programme, “which is not working because no government has requested it".
Similarly, the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR) is also alarmed by the new Commission proposals about the risk of the member states using the structural funds budget for 2018-20 (the performance reserve or technical assistance) to implement the structural reforms within the European Semester. It is especially concerned that the budget of the future cohesion policy will be reoriented towards structural reforms outside of shared management.
The question was raised with the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, during a meeting on Thursday 7 December (see EUROPE 11921). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)