On Tuesday 2 April, the European Commission adopted no fewer than 25 “major” infrastructure projects in 10 Member States as part of cohesion policy, including the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund.
All these projects together represent a total budget of €8 billion with €4 billion from the European Union (EU) budget. The projects mainly concern Member States in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, as well as a project in the former East Germany.
A few weeks before the European elections, the adoption of a series of projects (mainly transport infrastructure projects) pursues an objective: to highlight European “added value”, said Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Creţu in a press conference in response to EUROPE, while ensuring that it was not strictly speaking a “political” action.
“You know very well that it was my preoccupation from the first day as Commission to highlight the added value”, she explained.
“We need – and Member states, also ministers, and mayors need – to say about European projects which is not the case all the time. You know very well that sometimes everything that is good comes from the Member States and mayors, and everything that is bad comes from the EU, from Brussels”, she continued.
The Commissioner regrets that, all too often, European citizens are not aware of the actions financed by the EU.
In this respect, the Commissioner launched an appeal to the final beneficiaries – who were also particularly numerous in the press room. “I would like to involve the local administration much more in the design and implementation of projects, because the beneficiaries are the best ambassadors for our cohesion policy. More than us”, she hammered, hoping that this “tradition” will continue after her departure.
Negotiations on 2021-2027 cohesion policy, in particular on the future umbrella regulation laying down common provisions between the Structural and Investment Funds, will continue after the end of the mandate. They are currently at a standstill, after a halt by the Member States (see EUROPE 12212/15, 12210/6).
An agreement could be reached in the second half of 2020, according to some (see EUROPE 12221/13), leading the Commissioner to fear a delay in the implementation of the future cohesion policy.
“According to our estimations, if an agreement will not be reached in time that means we will have delays and that hundreds of projects will not be able to be finished with European money”, she warned.
For a list of funded projects: https://bit.ly/2CR32kr. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)