On Tuesday 10 July, the Austrian Minister for Women, Family and Youth, Juliane Bogner-Strauß, representing the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU, attended the regional development committee (REGI) where she was subject to sharp criticism from MEPs. The source of this discontent particularly focused on the absence of an invitation for parliamentarians to attend the General Affairs Council on Cohesion Policy planned for 12 November.
Several MEPs, such as Constanze Krehl (S&D, Germany), Lambert van Nistelrooij (EPP, Netherlands) and even Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL, Greece), were severely irritated and pointed out that up until then, every Presidency since the co-decision process began invited the MEPs from the REGI committee to the General Affairs Council dedicated to Cohesion Policy. Some of them highlighted the importance of listening to the positions of Parliament at the Council in an effort to improve the chances of reducing blockages before the European elections.
The Minister stonily replied that, “This is a formal and not an informal Council. Only Ministers participate at formal Councils”. She also indicated that all the Presidency's energy would “focus on the ministers”.
During these discussions, MEPs received few responses to their concerns about the lack of priority placed on the term “cohesion” in the Austrian programme or the omnipresent term of “subsidiarity” used by the latter, the full meaning of the concept of “a Europe that protects” used by the Presidency or even, at a more general level, Vienna's position with regard to Cohesion Policy - the Austrian government is known to be in favour of making significant budget cuts.
In this regard, the Minister briefly responded that she only represented the Presidency and not her government. Mr Papadimoulis described these responses as “offensive”. In conclusion, the Chairperson of the REGI Committee, Iskra Mihaylova (ALDE, Bulgaria) attempted to calm things down and reminded the Minister of the “sometimes emotional” importance MEPs attach to Cohesion Policy. She said that she hoped that there would be “constructive dialogue” during the Austrian Presidency's mandate.
One of the major concerns of many parliamentarians and even of the minister herself, is the brevity of the deadline that exists for reaching an agreement on the multiannual financial framework (see EUROPE 12014), as well as for all the sectoral proposals (see EUROPE 12029) before the European elections – Ms Mihaylova said that it would be a “miracle” if they managed to get there.
Minister Bogner-Strauß was standing in for the Minister for Sustainable Development, Elisabeth Köstinger, who is on maternity leave. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)