At a public meeting at the Committee of the Regions on Thursday, 9 January, Elisa Ferreira, the new Commissioner for Regional Policy, confirmed that the Just Transition Fund (JTF) will have its own budget, with new money, but that this will be “combined” with co-financing from existing funds.
The Commissioner told MEPs, representatives of local and regional authorities, and a handful of journalists that “we have to face new challenges with extra money, which means that cohesion policy has to be protected”. “In general terms, the idea is to combine money that comes from the budget with the involvement of the programmes that already have the capacity to address the regional programme as well”, she said, adding that the Fund will also be supplemented by the Just Transition Facility with the support of the European Investment Bank (see EUROPE 12386/13).
A combined financial input of €15 billion?
According to a provisional version of the regulation obtained by EUROPE, the Just Transition Fund will be provided with a budget of €5 billion (at 2018 prices). However, according to our information, the Fund’s financial envelope could potentially be increased to €7.5 billion. This would be more than the Committee of the Regions was requesting (see EUROPE 12274/17), but would fall a long way short of the €12 billion briefly envisaged by former Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger (see EUROPE 12345/8).
Unless compulsory co-financing from other structural and investment funds is introduced, that is. The Commissioner's intervention, along with a provisional version of the regulation and anticipated amendments to the Common Provisions Regulation, which EUROPE has also seen, would seem to confirm this option.
The European Commission expects the amount of resources available for the JTF under the investment for jobs and growth goal to be “complemented with at least an equal amount from the European Regional Development Fund or the European Social Fund + resources from the category of regions concerned”. Member States will be able to plan a larger transfer using Article 21 of the Common Provisions Regulation. Combined with co-financing, this would automatically increase the financial input to €15 billion, if the separate budget of €7.5 billion were confirmed.
Complexity factor
This approach is puzzling some observers who are questioning the link between this new, eighth structural fund and the other funds. In particular, at a time when co-legislators are seeking to simplify cohesion policy, our sources fear that the introduction of this new fund will cause a delay in the preparation and implementation of post-2020 programmes. This is particularly the case for what is a relatively small financial envelope and objectives that are already partly planned for in the ERDF and ESF+.
Furthermore, if the Common Provisions Regulation is to be amended, should the negotiating blocs that were discontinued during the Finnish Presidency of the EU Council be reopened (see EUROPE 12388/17)?
Ten Member States
There is also the issue of the eligibility criteria. According to the Commission's provisional text, 10 Member States in particular would benefit from the Fund's resources. The countries involved would be Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. But this number may be revised upwards, we are told.
The Fund will be presented on Tuesday, 14 January in the margins of the plenary session in Strasbourg. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens and Agathe Cherki)