The Slovenian Minister for Development and Cohesion Policy, Zvonko Černač, confirmed to MEPs in the Committee on Regional Development (REGI) the abandonment of the text on the European cross-border mechanism, during an exchange of views on Tuesday 13 July.
Asked by REGI Committee Chair Younous Omarjee (The Left, France) and Coordinator Constanze Krehl (S&D, Germany) about the future of the text, the Slovenian Minister confirmed that given the rejection of the text by Member States under the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council, the Presidency had no intention of reopening the file. However, he indicated that the Presidency intended to organise a debate on cross-border obstacles.
The Portuguese Presidency, which wanted to make progress on this dossier (see EUROPE 12648/16), had asked the Member States in May, in the framework of the working group, what should be done with this text. Most Member States had taken a position against the proposal, we were told, with the exception of Luxembourg (the originator of the proposal), Belgium and France.
Responding to the Bulgarian coordinator, Andrey Novakov (EPP), the Minister assured that the Slovenian Presidency would do everything to smooth the implementation of the recovery and resilience plans, while paying particular attention to the programming of the 2021-2027 cohesion policy. However, he recalled that no one could have anticipated such a particular context for implementing cohesion policy. His aim, he said, would be to shorten administrative procedures where possible.
However, he did not respond to President Omarjee, who prefaced his remarks by reporting on the request from many regions to extend the CRII and CRII+ initiatives in the face of the ongoing pandemic. On the question of organising an informal meeting dedicated to cohesion, also raised by Mr Omarjee, the Slovenian minister remained evasive, mentioning that everything would depend on health conditions during the second half of the year. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)