The Commissioner for Cohesion Policy, Elisa Ferreira, brought good news to the Committee of the Regions’ plenary session on Thursday 27 January, announcing that the implementation of the 2014-2020 cohesion programmes was progressing “well, given the circumstances”.
Thus, she announced that the European Commission had paid the equivalent of €253 billion, or 62% of the total funds provided. She added that these figures included the REACT-EU initiative, with €50.6 billion to strengthen cohesion policy support for the health crisis.
The European Commission has approved 99.3% of the 2021 tranche, she told the Committee representatives, and has already approved 20 amendments to the programme for the 2022 tranche. Ms Ferreira added that her departments would adopt all the changes in the first half of 2022.
She added that the Commission would make “extraordinary efforts” to invest the remaining 38% of the programmes and avoid the so-called “cut-off”, meaning the loss of the money foreseen because it is not spent. She acknowledged that the situation is “particularly challenging”, especially with the implementation of national recovery and resilience plans.
As for the new programming period, Ms Ferreira stressed the importance of all programmes being adopted by the end of the year. “Otherwise, the 2022 allocations may be lost”, she warned. However, the Commissioner said that the speed of programming should not be at the expense of its quality.
Ms Ferreira concluded her speech by pleading for the partnership principle to be respected and, to this end, highlighted the action plan signed earlier in the week with the Committee of the Regions (see EUROPE 12876/20). She also reiterated her call for the updating of the European Code of Conduct on Partnership (see EUROPE 12814/10).
This speech gives a foretaste of the 8th Cohesion Policy Report, which is due to be published on 4 February, according to our latest information.
In front of the MEPs, France assured that it would do everything possible under its Presidency at the head of the EU Council to speed up the implementation of the 2021-2027 Cohesion Policy (see EUROPE 12877/10). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)