Vasco Cordeiro is the President of the Government of the Azores, Portugal, and President of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR).
Two weeks ago, former European Commission President Jacques Delors said that ‘the lack of European solidarity pose a mortal danger to the European Union’. The ‘germ is back’, referring to the last meeting of the European Council which produced nothing but divisions across Member States regarding the EU response to the coronavirus crisis.
A common threat like the coronavirus calls for Member States to help each other and for coordinated European action. The European Commission has been quick to adopt extraordinary measures such as the Corona Response Investment Initiative. This goes in the right direction, particularly when it comes to relaxing state aid legislation in affected sectors. But the EU needs to do much more to show that it can act as one for the benefits of its citizens in such difficult times and to deliver on European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen’s priority to strengthen Europe’s ‘unique brand of responsible global leadership.’
The upcoming review of the European Commission proposal for the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework is therefore about much more than addressing the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the European social, economic and territorial fabric. The proposal will show whether the EU means business when it comes to solidarity. The time to think of the EU budget as a zero-sum game and the MFF negotiations being led by the prevailing ‘juste-retour’ logic is over.
Let’s not mince our words: this is make or break time for the European Union.
As President of the Conference of the Peripheral Maritime Regions, I believe the new proposal on the 2021-2027 budget should address three vital issues.
The first one is about the need for fresh financial resources going beyond the European Commission proposal issued in May 2018. Let’s be clear: if the European Union is to deliver an effective the ‘stimulus package’ Ms. Von der Leyen referred to last week, the 2021-2027 MFF proposal will need to be revised significantly upwards.
The unprecedented situation we face require a bold proposal. The European Parliament position on the MFF based on Member States’ contributions based on 1.3% GNI is an absolute minimum. Now is the time to take up Mario Monti’s proposals regarding the reform of the own resources of the European Union, and to think boldly about new ways to finance EU action in a democratic, transparent and sustainable way.
Secondly, fresh resources should be invested within the EU budget to enhance economic, social and territorial cohesion. The COVID-19 crisis is already proving to have a disproportionate impact at territorial level. This is about the long-term survival of aquaculture and fisheries businesses or the viability of the sustainable tourism sector in affected regions. This is about coming to the rescue of tens of thousands SMEs in distress across a wide range of sectors. This is also about standing by those peripheral areas, even in wealthy regions, that are two-fold exposed to this crisis as their economies are already suffering from deep structural difficulties.
Therefore, it is of paramount importance that these fresh resources should be invested within existing EU policies delivered in partnership with regions. The European Commission should carry out an extensive analysis of the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis at territorial level and provide additional targeted support for regions particularly affected by the crisis in the framework of Cohesion policy. It is vitally important that the increase of funding to the most affected regions should not come at the expense of resources originally planned for the others.
Thirdly, the current Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014-2020 should be extended by an additional year. This would leave ample time for the revised proposal for an EU Budget for the next programming period to be approved in due course and avoid disruptions when it comes to the implementation of post-2020 EU programmes and policies. Accordingly, ESIF provisions should be swiftly amended to prolong the expiry date of the period and simplify the bureaucratic steps needed to extend the individual programmes. The transition rules already proposed by the Commission allowing a prolongation of current EAFRD programmes could quickly be re-adapted for the ERDF and ESF[1].
Let me be clear: a proposal based mainly on repackaging existing EU funds away from their original ambition would be a terrible disappointment. The temptation to provide more flexibility – to national governments on the programming of shared-management funds and on the transfer of funding across funds and instruments (e.g. from Cohesion Policy to Invest EU or the BICC) - should be avoided at all costs.
Back in 2004, Jacques Delors said that people "who took Europe forward had three qualities: vision, heart and a strategic realism. Today these are in short supply". Let’s prove him wrong for the sake of our common European fate.