Brussels, 18/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - Regional Policy Commissioner Michel Barnier seized the opportunity provided by the press conference organised on Thursday on the occasion of the signing, with all ten acceding countries, of strategy and programming documents for the implementation of Structural Fund projects during the years 2004-2007 (we shall come back to this) to vehemently defend the role of the enlarged EU's cohesion policy after 2007 and to criticise the recent "Letter by the Six" calling for the EU's budget to be frozen at 1% of GDP (EUROPE of 17 December, p.8). Telling the press of his own "convictions" regarding the future cohesion policy ("one of the oldest and best Union policies"), Mr Barnier also sketched out the broad lines of the third report on cohesion that the Commission plans to present "in a few weeks from now" and which will launch a real debate on the EU's future regional policy. The enlarged Union which will see its population and territory expand by one third by 2007 although its wealth will only increase by 6%, will be a "Union market by greater inequality and division" and, consequently, a Union that will need "more cohesion policy", rather than less as some recommend. With this in mind, the Heads of State and Government had decided at the Copenhagen summit in December 2002 to increase cohesion policy expenditure from 0.32% of the (current) national gross income to 0.42% in 2006. This threshold must at least be preserved for the period 2007-2013, Mr Barnier insisted. "I find it hard to imagine that cohesion policy could have less in January 2007 than in December 2006". Furthermore, one of the main current weaknesses of the EU is its lack of sustainable economic growth and competitiveness. The Commissioner insisted that regional policy (and especially cohesion policy) are very important tools to the service of growth and competitiveness. He said, without cohesion and without dealing with the regions lagging behind in development, but which have enormous potential, it would not be possible to eliminate weak competitiveness. The Commission will therefore propose that, in future, this growth/competitiveness aspect will be even more "emphasised and improved" in Structural Fund programming. "This is exactly the spirit in which I prepared reform of cohesion policy as it will be proposed in the third cohesion report", the Commission said, for whom "our model cannot consist in saying: growth for some of us and charity for the others". Mr Barnier felt the "return" of investment in favour of cohesion is certain: 15-40% of credit invested in projects returns to net contributors "in the form of contracts and orders". Over and beyond these immediate returns, cohesion policy has also "proved itself" in terms of longer term growth stimulation. The four current cohesion countries (Spain, Greece, Portugal, Ireland) have earned "over 10% of GNP", Mr Barnier noted, "and we shall successfully face the same challenge with the ten new Member States". In answer to questions on the request made by six net contributors to put a 1% of GDP ceiling on the budget, Mr Barnier felt that it was incompatible with the constant extension of EU policies and fields of action. "We cannot do more with less money", he said. In its proposal (to be presented end January) on forthcoming financial perspectives, the "Commission will assume its responsibilities" by proposing the financial means that it considers indispensable to carry out the necessary policies and actions in an enlarged EU. Then, in 2005, he said, it will be up to the 25 leaders to take their responsibilities. Mr Barnier also pointed out that the January proposal will contain avenues for reflection with a view to changing the construction and fuelling of the EU budget, "for example, by providing for more direct budgetary resources without necessarily, however, increasing the burden on taxpayers".