The European Commission announced on Wednesday 26 February, on the occasion of the presentation of the country reports on socio-economic policies for 2020 (see other news), the European regions eligible for the new Just Transition Fund.
Earlier this year, the Commission presented a new Cohesion Fund, the Just Transition Fund, to provide financial support to the people, regions and sectors most affected by the socio-economic effects of the energy transition (see EUROPE 12403/2). This fund, with a budget of €7.5 billion and backed by the structural and investment funds, focuses on the Nuts 3 regions, the lowest political-administrative level.
The European Commission has thus included in each country report an Annex D, which gives its proposals for the territories eligible for the Fund, in order to open an "informal dialogue" with the Member States. Fewer than 10% of the European regions have been selected, i.e. 103 regions in all, in order to maintain a high concentration of financial effort and thus maximise the impact of the fund.
The selection criteria used by the institution are threefold: - the carbon intensity of regional industry; - the regional employment rate in coal and lignite mining, peat or shale mining. It should be noted that certain corrections are applied according to the relative prosperity based on the per capita GNI of the Member State calculated over the period 2015-2017.
Not surprisingly, for Poland, which is expected to receive the largest contribution from the Fund (capped at €2 billion), all mining regions have been selected by the Commission, namely Silesia, Greater Poland, Lower Silesia, the Voivodeship of Łódź, Lublin and Lesser Poland (p. 59 of the report).
Similarly, the Commission has identified many potentially eligible East German regions (p. 77 of the German report): Elbe-Elster, Oberspreewald-Lausitz, Dahme-Spreewald, Spree-Neiße and Cottbus in the Federal State of Brandenburg, and Bautzen and Görlitz in the Federal State of Saxony, Leipzig, the City of Leipzig and Nordsachsen in Saxony and the Burgenlandkreis, Saalekreis, the City of Halle, Mansfeld-Südharz and Anhalt-Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt. North Rhine-Westphalia will also be affected.
On the contrary, few French regions seem to be concerned, given that the Commission targeted only two departments, namely Bouches-du-Rhône and Nord (p. 84 of the French report).
Member States are now invited by the Commission to be guided by its proposals when drawing up their territorial plans for a just transition. In its communication, the Commission explains that it will provide specific technical support to Member States to help them prepare the transition plans. These plans will be drawn up by Member States in consultation with the Commission and in line with their national energy and climate plans, says the institution.
The ideal just transition plan. During an exchange with journalists, the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, gave her vision of the ideal transition plan: it must be resolutely forward-looking, have been drawn up with the regions and as many stakeholders as possible and, above all, be "realistic". "We don't want a big, massive plan, but a plan that is up to the task", she told reporters.
Structural reforms and transition plans. Furthermore, on the same day, the Commission adopted its Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP), a programme aimed at providing technical support on structural reform to all Member States that request it.
At present, around 1,000 reform projects in the 27 Member States are benefiting from this support programme and, for the year 2020 alone, more than 240 additional projects are planned. The Commission gave some examples, such as the modernisation of Belgium's e-government services, the strengthening of resources in Denmark to manage fiscal risks or helping Spain to move away from coal.
As such, Commissioner Ferreira indicated that the programme will receive an additional €3.4 million in funding to help those Member States who wish to do so to prepare their transition plans. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)