MEPs from all political parties, mainly from the South and East of Europe, stressed once again, during a debate in the European Parliament plenary session on Friday 10 July, before the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reform, Elisa Ferreira, the importance of properly funding cohesion policy in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027.
It was the Chair of the Regional Development Committee (REGI), French MEP Younous Omarjee (GUE/NGL), who led the charge against the budget cuts proposed by the Commission (-12% compared to the 2014-2020 MFF) despite the fact that it was the only European policy to respond quickly and massively to the health crisis, according to him.
Mircea-Gheorghe Hava (EPP, Romania), on behalf of her group, said the same thing, calling for concrete action rather than “promises” and “bits of paper” and for transitional measures as soon as possible to bridge the “gap” between the two European budget cycles.
Similarly, Mónica Silvana González (S&D, Spain) and Susana Solís Pérez (Renew Europe, Spain), as well as Niklas Nienass (Greens/EFA, Germany), all speaking on behalf of their respective groups, stressed the need to move fast and boldly. Alessandra Basso (ID, Italy) told the Commission that it was better to honour promises with limited ambitions than to honour no promises at all.
For his part, João Ferreira (GUE/NGL, Portugal), who, like his colleagues, regretted the cut in the budget foreseen in the next MFF, pointed to the risks of too much flexibility and transfers which could ultimately “aggravate” the situation of regional disparities. He also warned against a strong centralisation of European instruments and called, on the contrary, for the principle of shared management to be disseminated.
Mr Nienass questioned the effectiveness of the measures taken by the Commission during the crisis, namely whether it was indeed the regions most affected by the pandemic that had been able to benefit from the flexibilities introduced by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12460/3).
The only dissonance in this broad consensus in favour of cohesion policy was the Dutchman Robert Roos (ECR), who denounced the use made by countries benefiting from cohesion funds to compete with the Dutch economy. Why, he asked, should the Netherlands fund a policy that destroys its economy?
The Commissioner again took issue with MEPs' allegations of budget cuts and recalled that the European Commission had put a total of €100 billion of new money into cohesion policy. She also indicated that all Member States, with the exception of Austria and Denmark, had taken advantage of the flexibilities introduced by CRII and CRII+. Like the MEPs, she concluded her speech by urging Member States to move quickly on the budget negotiations. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)