Prime Ministers and senior officials from 17 Member States met in Prague on Tuesday 5 November under the banner of “Friends of Cohesion” to stand together to defend the cohesion policy budget envelope in the context of the negotiations on the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework.
At the end of the summit, the 17 countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain) adopted a declaration calling for cohesion policy funding to be maintained at the level of the 2014-2020 budget cycle in current prices.
For them, things are clear: “The significant budget reductions included in the MFF 2021-2027 proposal risk to hinder achieving its Treaty based objectives” in Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. The group also emphasised: “Any recalculation of national envelopes should ensure that investment power of Member States concerned is protected and maintained at an appropriate level”.
Similarly, the 17 countries are calling for cofinancing rates and disbursement rules to be maintained at 2014-2020 levels for 3 years after the end of the European budget cycle - a request strongly rejected by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12321/8). They also demand a pre-financing rate that is “high enough” to take into account the difficulties at the beginning of the implementation of the funds.
In general, the signatories of the declaration would like more flexibility in the allocation of funds between cohesion policy objectives (currently mainly focused on climate objectives) with better account taken of regional and national priorities and also between the different cohesion policies.
The 17 countries are fearful of the new budget proposals of the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU, which are expected to be delivered at the end of November or the beginning of December to the European Council. After the summer, the Presidency had already provoked an outcry by suggesting an MFF of between 1.03% and 1.08% of the Twenty-Seven’s Gross National Income (GNI) (see EUROPE 12352/1), compared to 1.114% in the Commission's proposal.
Such a reduction in the overall budget leads some to fear painful budgetary trade-offs between traditional policies (common agricultural policy and cohesion policy) and new priorities (defence, migration, climate, etc.). However, at the beginning of October, the outgoing Budget Commissioner, Günther Oettinger, assured the Committee of the Regions (CoR) that the CAP and cohesion policy would not be subject to severe budget cuts (see EUROPE 12345/8).
Negotiations on cohesion. The budget debate could have an impact on interinstitutional negotiations (trilogues) on the various cohesion policy funds, which are slowly picking up speed. The co-legislators will meet a second time on 12 November to discuss the umbrella regulation laying down common provisions between the various structural and investment funds and will start talks on Interreg on 20 November.
To consult the declaration: http://bit.ly/2PQf1Gm (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)