On Tuesday 20 February, the vice-president of the European Commission responsible for the euro and social dialogue, Valdis Dombrovskis, addressed the European Parliament’s regional development committee (REGI). He said he expects an increase in the budget attributed to the Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS) in the next EU multiannual financial framework.
The SRSS aims to provide technical support for structural reform for all member states that so request it. The latter would, moreover, become more and more numerous to do so, the commissioner said, pointing out that, in 2015, seven member states had solicited SRSS, which at the time had a budget of €3 million, for some 20 projects, compared with 271 requests made by 16 member states in 2017, for a budget of €83 million, i.e. four times the budget available for that year, he explained. The commissioner therefore believes it would be illogical for the SRSS budget to be reduced in the next multiannual financial framework.
Furthermore, Dombrovskis said that the structure and the spirit of the SRSS should not change. In his view, the unknown variable is still the budgetary heading under which the SRSS will come. This perhaps leaves the MEPs’ main question unanswered.
During exchanges with the parliamentary committee, several MEPs, including Constanze Krehl (S&D, Germany) and Terry Reintke (Greens/EFA, Germany) voiced their opposition to the Commission proposal which wants to use the performance reserve for supporting structural reforms. Krehl, for her part, considers the proposal is a “strategic error” and “a very bad signal” with regards the next multiannual financial framework. Lambert van Nistelrooij (EPP, NL) did not give such a firm opinion but also spoke of scepticism.
That scepticism is shared by the Committee of the Regions, which states it is ready to refer the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union (see EUROPE 11951). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)