Brussels, 17/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - During the public hearing organised by the budgets committee of the EP on financial perspectives in 2007-2013, Commissioner Michel Barnier declared on Tuesday afternoon that the increase in funding for regional development for the 2007-13 period (an average of +20%) was justified by the need to reduce the "fracture" between current and accession countries of the EU. He pointed out that 78% of structural funds would go to late developing regions, mainly in the new Member States, as well as to the victims of the "statistical effect" of EU enlargement, resulting from the phasing out over seven years of the aid that some EU currently benefit from, so that an over brutal transition was avoided.
Kyösti Virrankoski (ELDR, Finland) returned to the problem of the endemic under-execution of structural funds and asked Commissioner Barnier whether the Commission would take this problem into account in its calculation of spending in the new financial perspectives. Barnier announced that the "amount still to be paid" (funding that still has to be spent in the previous programmes) would disappear by the end of the current Commission's mandate. The Commissioner explained that they had "already gone halfway" and added that at the end of the year there would only be a few hundred million remaining (as opposed to the EUR 100 billion in 2003: Editor's note) un-executed, to deal with legal ramifications. Barnier explained that under-execution of structural funds could often be explained by the absence of private and public partner participation. Barnier underlined that "even when it is matter of co-funding a project to the tune of 15%, we still encounter problems". The Commissioner considered that the European Investment Bank (EIB) was expected to take action in the future to "make good this shortfall".
British Conservative Den Dover appealed for significant reform of regional policy, claiming that structural policy needed re-nationalising. In a reference to the solidarity principle, Barnier explained that any re-nationalisation would "accentuate the fracture between the late developing regions and the others and would make the setting up of a new cohesion policy ten or fifteen years later, imperative."
Lamy lays out priority themes for external action
Commissioner Pascal Lamy declared during a hearing, before outlining the priority Commission themes on external relations that "Europe will be strong from within and without": 1) ensure civil security and strategy in the face of the most serious threats (terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and regional conflicts. Lamy explained that that two pitfalls had to be avoided in this area "the all embracing security issue" and the too large a gap between ambition and reality; 2) setting up tenable global governance in the fight against "underdevelopment"; 3) assert, drawing on its neighbourhood policy, the leading role of regional direction in the Union. Lamy underlined that the implementation of these polices involved in the "radical overhaul of co-operation and assistance instruments" which currently number around a hundred. In the future, only six instruments will cover the total number of external areas: cooperation and development, peace and security, pre-accession aid, especially important for the Balkans), neighbourhood in the form of cross-border cooperation, humanitarian aid and macro-financial assistance.
Commissioner Lamy explained that the budgetary envelope for external relations would rise to EUR 15.7 bn in commitment appropriations by 2013 (EUR 13.7 bn on average for 2007-13). Expenditure would remain just about the same (from 9.3% in 2006 to 9.9% in the 2013 EU budget). In reply to certain question contributions from MEPs, Lamy explained that the amounts in the proposal would have to be translated into the priorities decided on by the European Council.