At a meeting of the European Parliament shadow rapporteurs on the regulation establishing a Just Transition Fund on Thursday 11 June, there was reported to be a convergence of views on an increase in the Fund's budget, in line with recent Commission proposals, and on a voluntary approach to transfers of funds between structural and investment funds.
The rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs, as well as the rapporteur for the opinion of the various associated committees (ITRE, EMPL, ENVI, AGRI, ECON, TRAN), reached overall agreement on the increased budget of €40 billion proposed by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12501/4) and on replacing the compulsory transfer between funds by a voluntary approach, following the example of the Member States (see EUROPE 12504/11).
On the other hand, some disagreements did emerge, often reflecting national interests, notably on the issue of financing gas to make the green transition a success, as proposed by Jerzy Buzek (EPP, Poland) on behalf of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) or supported by Ondřej Knotek ( Renew Europe, Czech Republic). Spanish and Romanian MEPs pushed for the introduction of new criteria for depopulated regions.
The GUE/NGL are in favour of strengthening the criteria for mountain regions. The rapporteur for the Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL), Mounir Satouri (Greens/EFA, France), is reported to have called for a strengthening of the social dimension of the Fund to help workers (retraining, training, employment aid) according to a "three times one third" principle: one third for the digital and green transition, one third for territorial capacity building and one third for people. The question of adding conditionalities was also discussed, particularly in relation to the decarbonisation of national energy balances.
The date of the next meeting of the rapporteurs is not known. The opinions of the various committees are expected by the end of June. The vote in the Committee on Regional Development is scheduled for 6 July. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)