The European Commissioner for Cohesion Policy, Elisa Ferreira, presented, on Wednesday 25 January, her harnessing talent mechanism (see EUROPE 13101/15) to the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI). Aimed at EU regions suffering from an accelerated decline in their working age population, it has been welcomed, although with some caveats.
“I welcome the initiative, but I would be even happier if there were some fresh funding inside”, said Andrey Novakov (EPP, Bulgarian). MEPs also asked for clarification of the mechanism’s concrete actions and evaluation criteria.
While promising a timetable of initiatives, Ms Ferreira said “the first step (to finding a solution) is recognising that there is a problem [at the political level]”. On funding, she recalled that “the per capita allocation of funds is [already] disproportionate in favour of weaker regions” and that it is mainly a question of “shaping the funds we have” to address this issue. For example, she called on Member States to revitalise the urban centres of the 82 regions concerned, also building on other initiatives, such as the ‘New European Bauhaus’ (see EUROPE 13101/19).
She also reiterated the importance of collecting adequate data, taking into account the diversity of the affected regions while keeping in mind the overall EU situation in order to develop “place-based policies” that combine “bottom-up” and “top-down approaches.
MEPs, including REGI Chair Younous Omarjee (The Left, French), also stressed the importance of putting quality of life at the centre of the strategy, in order to obtain a mechanism that tackles not only labour market inefficiencies, but also the lack of services (education, culture, health, etc.).
Finally, Marcos Ros Sempere (S&D, Spanish) welcomed the initiative, stressing that “after the failure of the European Year of Youth in terms of regional development [...] it is important that the European Year of Skills starts with a positive sign”. (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)