MEPs on the Committee on Regional Development (REGI) unanimously called for a review of the provisions governing the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF) and its budgetary allocation, in a discussion with the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, on Monday 6 September.
“The EUSF budget for 2021 has already been entirely used up, and for good reason, and this raises serious questions for the future and we already have to think about a resulting modification of the EUSF allocations, because, as we can see, the EUSF is already out of date and it is no longer able to deal with the emergency”, said the chairman of the REGI committee, French MEP Younous Omarjee (The Left).
The MEP’s position was shared by almost all the MEPs who took the floor, starting with Pascal Arimont (EPP, Belgium), Cristina Maestre Martín de Almagro (S&D, Spain) and Ondřej Knotek (Renew Europe, Czech Republic). The latter has asked to reopen negotiations on the EUSF regulation, and also to review the deadlines for estimating the funds, which is currently 12 weeks.
Rosa D'Amato (Greens/EFA, Italy) said that at least pre-financing should be increased to make the fund more effective. Raffaelle Fito (ECR, Italy) proposed excluding EUSF co-financing from the calculation of the deficit under the Stability and Growth Pact. Martina Michels (The Left, Germany) wondered whether the Social Climate Fund could be used to respond to natural disasters.
“The structure of the fund is like that”, the Commissioner replied,noting that Member States have 12 weeks to estimate the costs of a natural disaster. She added that the Fund is only activated if the total costs of the disaster are not “sustainable” for a state or region. She added that the Fund was also short of money because of the extension of its scope to cover the costs of the pandemic (see EUROPE 12456/18) and assistance to Croatia after the two earthquakes in 2020 (see EUROPE 12578/28).
However, Ms Ferreira mentioned that it was possible to increase European participation under certain circumstances. “We can increase the participation, but if we increase the participation of the EU (...) we will have to allocate [funds] to fewer events”, she said, referring to Article 20 of the umbrella regulation on common provisions between the structural and investment funds.
At the end of July, Younous Omarjee tabled an oral question on behalf of the parliamentary committee. A debate could be held at the next European Parliament plenary session in September. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)