While the European Commission has been more transparent about how EU Cohesion Policy funds will be allocated over the period 2021-2027, the process remains similar and “relatively complex”, according to a European Court of Auditors report published on Thursday, 28 March.
In particular, the Commission has published all its allocation method proposals as part of its much broader proposals for a “Common Provisions Regulation” (CPR), as well as for the resulting allocations, the European Court of Auditors recalled.
But this effort at transparency does not remove the relative complex method, according to the Court of Auditors. Starting with the distribution key for allocating budget envelopes, which continues to follow the so-called 'Berlin’ method, devised for allocating cohesion funds based on regional and national prosperity and unemployment, while introducing marginal modifications, a source of complexity.
EU auditors point out that, for the first time, migration and greenhouse gas emissions are included in the allocation process, for a limited overall effect (see EUROPE 12013/6), in addition to socio-economic and environmental factors such as the youth unemployment rate or the level of education achieved.
Another observation that is also a source of complexity is that the European Commission has introduced a maximum positive differential of 8% for cohesion funds allocated to a Member State compared to 2014-2020, while the maximum negative differential cannot exceed 24% (see EUROPE 12031/14).
In addition, the Commission's proposals for 2021-2027 include, for the first time, amounts per Member State and no longer just an overall amount, the authors of the report note.
As a reminder, the Commission suggests that the overall budget should be set at €373 billion, 10% less than for the 2014-2020 budget (but up to 46% less for the Cohesion Fund). However, 75% of the funds will remain allocated, as in previous periods, to the poorest and least developed regions.
The budget issue is still far from being resolved. The European Parliament and the EU Council are expected to decide on the amounts proposed by the Commission over the next twelve months, even if a later adoption is increasingly plausible (see EUROPE 12221/13).
To view the report: https://bit.ly/2U1U7Ht. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot – intern)