Brussels, 06/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - After statements by certain ministers made even before the new Italian government was set in place and which had cast doubt as to how keen Italy was on the enlargement process, the new government presented to the European Commission a "Memorandum on Economic and Social Cohesion". The document states that EU enlargement is an "historic opportunity". In the enlarged EU, the gap between the regions is growing larger and that this, hand in hand with the serious limits of the current policy, means reform is necessary, adds the document. It calls for initiatives in three directions. Thus, EU cohesion policy (on which Economy Minister Tremonti spoke with Commissioner Barnier: see p. 14) should:
- increase the competitiveness of the regions of candidate countries and the current Member States. In particular, according to the Italian government, a significant part of this policy could consist in taking measures covering regions of several member States in sectors where a wider scale would bring the tangible and intangible advantages sought.
- guarantee adequate support to regions lagging behind in development in the current Member States mainly by using reliable alternative indicators making it possible to measure the under-use of resources, or having recourse to an appropriate statistical method to measure the average income per capita in the EU. One could also envisage adequate transitional support or "phasing out", says the document.
- become more effective, mainly by simplifying procedures, using evaluation procedures selected according to the principle of subsidiarity by reducing the segmentation of funds, more clear-cut division of roles between the Commission and the national managing authorities (which should in turn improve the "vertical institutional partnership among levels of government").