Interinstitutional negotiations (trilogue) between the European Parliament and the EU Council on the so-called “umbrella” regulation on common provisions for structural and investment funds failed, on Wednesday 18 November, due to differences of opinion on macro-conditionality and transfers.
However, progress was made on macro-conditionality, the mechanism linking the payment of EU funds to compliance with the criteria of the Stability and Growth Pact.
As a reminder, the European Parliament, after having supported it in parliamentary committee (see EUROPE 12177/15), had rejected macro-conditionality in plenary session (see EUROPE 12193/2), whereas the EU Council recommends it. However, an agreement could emerge: the mechanism would be preserved, but the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) would be excluded. According to our information, the European Commission should come back with a proposal to clarify the latter option.
The remaining stumbling block is the transfer of funding between funds and in particular to the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the instrument for infrastructure investment in the transport, energy and telecommunications sectors.
For the EU Council, at least 30% of the Cohesion Fund should be earmarked for the CEF, while the European Parliament prefers that this constraint should not apply to Member States whose GDP is less than 65% of the European average. As the German Presidency of the EU Council has no mandate from the Member States for such an agreement, it will sound out national delegations at technical level in this respect.
Without an agreement on the umbrella regulation, there can be no agreement on the CEF in the current negotiations.
The next trilogue is said to be scheduled for 1 December. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)