The latest interinstitutional meeting between the European Parliament and Council of the EU regarding the regulation laying down common provisions for the Structural and Investment Funds post-2020, which was initially scheduled for Tuesday 12 March, was, according to our information, quite simply cancelled by the Council of the EU on Friday 8 March.
According to our information, the Council of the EU is not yet ready because of a new proposal put forward by the European Commission regarding partnership agreements, specifically with a view to accommodating the position of the Parliament and the Council of the EU. By way of reminder, delegations introduced derogations from partnership agreements (see EUROPE 12163/18) in order to simplify matters.
There are two kinds of these: - when the amount of resources from the ERDF, CF and ESF+ in respect of a Member State is less than €2.5 billion; - when a Member State submits no more than three programmes for investment for jobs and growth.
These are derogations that would cover many small Member States. However, it is something of a red line for the European Parliament, which wants the mandatory implementation of the partnership in all Member States, without exception (see EUROPE 12193/2).
At a meeting of the Council of the EU's Structural Actions Group, attachés from several Member States – predominantly from the group of net contributor States or those excluded from the Partnership Agreement (Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Poland, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia) – reportedly informally expressed their disagreement at continuing the negotiations.
The reason is that these Member States would prefer not to “tie their hands” (in this case the block dedicated to programming for the implementation of the funds referred to in Articles 16 to 20 of the Regulation), while equally not coming together over elements of agreement on other crucial parts of the Regulation.
The Council of the EU would therefore have notified the European Parliament and the European Commission of the cancellation of the meeting. At this time, no further meetings are being considered. However, if Member States want to achieve a global vision on the regulation before they can reach agreement on the part dedicated to programming and strategic planning, one source has explained that it would only be possible to reach an agreement in autumn 2019. Such a late date as this would result in the same delay in programme implementation as at the beginning of the current budget cycle, our source further explained. This is precisely the situation that the European Commission wanted to avoid.
The Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU will endeavour to question the Member States once again on Monday 11 March. If it should turn out that the Member States do not want to continue the negotiations, the European Parliament should therefore adopt its position at first reading at one of the two plenary sessions to be held in April. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)