The Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, sought to reassure MEPs of the potential negative impact of programming delays in the 2021-2027 cohesion policy, in an exchange on Monday 7 March in the evening.
The Chairman of the Committee on Regional Development (REGI), Younous Omarjee (The Left, France), reiterated his committee’s strong concerns at the opening of the discussion. “Two years after the adoption of the regulations, the 2021-2027 cohesion policy has not yet started and almost no partnership agreements have been validated”, he noted.
Followed by: “We have a duty to act to make this programming a success and we hope that the programmes will be operational in the regions and on the ground before the end of this year”.
Responding to a series of questions from MEPs, the Commissioner acknowledged the delays in programming compared to the previous budget cycle, recalling how the context had changed since the programming work began in 2019. Only one partnership agreement - that of Greece - was adopted out of the 12 submitted by the Member States. A hundred provisional programmes were received by the European Commission.
However, while the situation is worrying, the Commissioner sought to put the consequences in perspective within a timeline, pointing out that Member States will not run out of funding thanks to the CRII and CRII+ initiatives and REACT-EU.
Secondly, she continued, “it should not prevent the implementation of projects to start already because (...) expenditure is already eligible from 1 January this year, provided that programming tests accommodate them”.
Thirdly, she said, no amount will be lost due to the delay in 2021, as the Commission has reallocated the 2021 money to the years 2022 to 2025. “But, in 2022, we no longer have this luxury, so we cannot afford further delay”, she warned.
That said, the Commissioner recognised the need to accelerate the pace of partnerships. In the first half of 2022, she expects to receive most of the proposals for partnership agreements for the period 2021-2027 from the Member States, with the exception of four countries which will submit them in the second half of the year.
Referring to the three initiatives she intends to announce on Tuesday 8 March to help regions cope with the huge influx of refugees due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (see EUROPE 12903/5), the Commissioner hopes for support from MEPs, she said.
Mr Omarjee assured that his committee was ready to amend the cohesion regulations to help cities and regions hosting refugees and to support the refugees themselves. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)