European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has not responded positively to requests from regions and cities to extend the flexibility measures introduced during the pandemic, in a letter seen by EUROPE on Friday 10 September. However, she always leaves a door open to reverse her position.
In a letter sent on 22 June, the European Committee of the Regions, based on a survey conducted by the secretariat of the Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget (Coter), called for the extension of a whole series of measures introduced during the pandemic.
These include the extension of the CRII and CRII+ initiatives, 100% co-financing, and the N+3 disbursement rule for the 2014-2020 period. They also call for an exemption from the thematic concentration compliance requirement and a temporary increase in the de minimis State Aid threshold.
Thus, in her reply, dated at the end of August, the President of the Commission recalls that there are still more than 2 years to go until the final date of eligibility of expenditure under the 2014-2020 cohesion policy programmes.
Therefore, “It is our view (the Commission) that the extension of the programming period would be detrimental to the policy rather than helpful: the overlap between the programming periods would inevitably delay the rapid implementation of the new cohesion policy programmes for 2021-2027”, writes Mrs von der Leyen.
As regards State Aid rules, she said that her institution had already extended the temporary framework until 31 December 2021 and revised certain ceilings. And to conclude: “The Commission will decide on the future of the Temporary Framework before its expiry date”.
Finally, on the issue of co-financing, she assured that the Commission “continues to monitor this situation closely”, before specifying that her institution could consider “further actions (...) when it is deemed appropriate”.
Local and regional authorities’ administrations are indeed facing a huge workload due to the telescoping of the end of the 2014-2020 programming cycle with the 2021-2027 programming cycle and the reprogramming introduced under the REACT-EU initiative (the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, acknowledged the need to remain flexible during an exchange with EUROPE - see EUROPE 12738/16).
On Thursday 9 September, the members of the Cohesion Alliance discussed this issue with the Commissioner. The Alliance appreciated the Commission’s openness on the issue of co-financing in particular. The members of the Alliance also stressed the need to respect the partnership principle and to better take into account local and regional authorities in the implementation of the European Recovery Plan. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)