If the agreement reached in the EU Council on the next Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 is too unambitious and cuts the already reduced budget of the Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy, the European Parliament will not hesitate to reject it.
This is, in essence, the message sent to the EU Council by the co-rapporteur on the next Multiannual Financial Framework, Jan Olbrycht (EPP, Poland), and the Chairman of the Regional Development Committee, Younous Omarjee (GUE/NGL, France), at the General Assembly of the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR), on Thursday 17 and Friday 18 October.
"There is a strong chance that Parliament will say no if they cut cohesion. If the Member States do not agree, the agreement will arrive late. If we disagree, then it will arrive even later. The Commission should start preparing a plan B, if there is no agreement by the end of 2020 on cohesion policies". It was under these terms that Mr Olbrycht addressed the local and regional authorities on Thursday 17 October.
During his speech, the MEP mentioned the proposals of the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU: to set the European budget at between 1.03% and 1.08% for the next seven years (see EUROPE 12350/4). Mr Olbrycht also expressed concern about the Finnish strategy to recover support from cohesion countries by allocating more funds to them within a limited budget, ultimately meaning that the regions in transition and the most developed ones would be directly affected.
"We will not accept cuts in traditional budgets", stressed Younous Omarjee the next day. "The European Council must not doubt the European Parliament, which has strong powers. If we have to say no to a bad budget, we will say no to a bad budget", he insisted, recalling that the European Parliament has a new profile compared to the previous one.
Speaking with EUROPE, the French MEP said he expected France and Germany (which supports a contribution of 1% of GNI) to defend an "offensive budget" and cohesion. He explained that the Committee on Regional Development was coordinating with the Committee on Budgets to put pressure on them.
The position of the MEPs was welcomed, during a discussion with EUROPE, by the President of the Committee of the Regions, Karl-Heinz Lambertz: "this new generation of MEPs simply recalls European law: the budget is about co-decision".
Outcry over the Just Transition Fund. The creation of a Just Transition Fund is also a cause for concern. What will be the scope of the Fund's intervention? Most importantly, will it be taken from the budget dedicated to cohesion policy? In his speech on Friday 18 October, the Director General of DG REGIO, Marc Lemaître, spoke of the additionality of the fund, in other words of additional funds (8 to 12 billion euros, according to the Commissioner for the Budget - see EUROPE 12345/8), as well as of a shared management. Some critics question the very usefulness of this fund, which they say risks adding complexity and would work against cohesion policy.
Thus, one of the strategies envisaged is to introduce the concept of territoriality and cohesion into all policies, in particular in the EU framework programme Horizon Europe, as Margarida Marques (S&D, Portugal), co-rapporteur on the 2021-2027 MFF, stressed.
Finnish proposals. According to the proposals put forward by the Finnish Presidency on 11 October, consulted by EUROPE, the Presidency plans a budget of between €1,050 and €1,100 billion compared to €1,135 billion proposed by the European Commission. The Presidency especially details the breakdown of funding: thus, 29.1% of the total European budget over the next cycle would be dedicated to cohesion policy (compared to the current 34%).
CPMR Declaration and Manifesto. On the morning of Friday 18 October, the CPMR adopted a declaration to send a message on the short term. It reiterates its positions: national contributions set at 1.3% of GNI, the maintenance of cohesion policy as a pillar of the European project and an acceleration of negotiations. Two more specific requests are included: first, it calls for European territorial cooperation to represent a "minimum" of 3.5% of the total cohesion policy budget and, above all, for its architecture to be preserved to guarantee cross-border maritime cooperation. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)