In an own initiative report submitted by Marc Joulaud (EPP, France), MEPs expressed their “serious” concerns about the recent scenarios put forward by the European Commission regarding the future of cohesion policy (see EUROPE 11961) and warn against budget cuts that threaten to exclude many regions from the scope of cohesion policy.
MEPs are instead arguing for, “an ambitious budget capable of meeting the challenges” and call on the Commission and member states not to make cohesion policy into “an adjustment variable”.
In the report, the MEPs therefore hammer home the message that coverage of all Union regions is a “non-negotiable element for the European Parliament”. They argue that new priorities such as those linked to migration flow management can be covered by the next cohesion policy but not for short-term objectives.
Social and tax convergence
They are also of the opinion that the “European Semester” budget process must include an enhanced territorial component and take into account “real convergence”. In this connection, MEPs argue that that cohesion policy could in the future support tax and social convergence through positive incentive measures by linking local and regional levels on the same lines as those argued for by the French President (see other article).
One of the crucial points put forward by the MEPs suggests that the next multi-annual financial framework (MFF) should be in the 5+5 format and that GDP remains the main indicator in allocating funds, in addition to other indicators relating to social, environmental and demographic criteria, with particular emphasis on youth unemployment rates.
Conditionalities
According to the text, the European Social Fund must remain within the control of cohesion policy, which is an important point in committee negotiations (see EUROPE 11990). MEPs are calling for greater simplification of future cohesion policy and are no longer rejecting all micro-economic conditionalities. They are also highlighting the need to enhance policy communication.
The alternative text submitted by the ENF MEP Steeve Briois (France), which claims that cohesion policy exacerbates imbalances between member states, was rejected by a very large majority (88 votes for, 566 against, 13 abstentions).
This is the last message from Parliament to the European Commission, given that the latter is gearing up for its presentation on 2 May of its proposal for the next multi-financial framework. The Council provided its orientations during a debate last week on the future of cohesion policy (see EUROPE 12000). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)