The President of the Committee of the Regions, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, signed a letter to the European Commission on Thursday (15 July) to extend the flexibility measures introduced under the two Coronavirus Investment Initiatives (CRII and CRII+).
The president and the chair of the CoR’s Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and the EU Budget (COTER), Isabelle Boudineau, the other co-signatory of the letter, base their request on the results of a recent survey among regions and cities.
“Even if the worst may now be behind us, regional economies are bearing the brunt of the pandemic’s impact and EU regions must continue to rely on adequate flexibility in the management of 2014-2020 cohesion policy programmes, as well as on harmonised regulatory frameworks for EU funding and state aid schemes”, it reads.
Thus, the co-signatories “urge” the Commission to present a proposal for a revision of the legal rules, allowing : - the extension of the 100% co-financing rate for a further year; - the extension of the ‘N+3’ rule; - a temporary increase in the de minimis threshold for state aid.
This request was also conveyed by MEPs in a recent debate with the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira. But the latter remained silent on the issue (see EUROPE 12761/11).
To access the letter: https://bit.ly/36E2DAr
To access the study: https://bit.ly/3B8IsIJ (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)