Brussels, 07/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - The joint conference on “the future of European cohesion and its financing”, held in Brussels on 6 April, placed emphasis on the absolute need to reach an agreement on the financial framework for 2007-2013 during the summit on 16 and 17 June. As the EU Council president, Luxembourg European Affairs Minister Nicolas Schmit, stressed: “The message from Heads of State and Government in June must be positive and give fresh impetus to Europe. The message must be that Europe should know how to set itself ambitious goals and give itself the means to attain them” (see EUROPE 8922).
As work opened, the Commissioner for regional policy, Danuta Hübner, recalled that, as far as the EU's strategic guidelines for cohesion policy are concerned, the Commission began its consultations with Member States in January, and 23 have now been concluded. She announced that, on 27 April, she will report to the College of Commissioners on the results of these consultations, and said the ministers responsible for the dossier will discuss the strategic guidelines proposed by the Commission (see EUROPE 8900) during their informal meeting on 20 and 21 May in Luxembourg. The guidelines cannot be officially endorsed until the regulations have been adopted, the Commissioner recalled, reassuring his public that: “We shall work with the Member States to prepare framework-agreements that will be sent to the Commission as soon as possible. And if the Member States agree, the procedure may be accelerated in order to be able to negotiate the operational programmes early 2006”. She went on to add: “In June, we shall work on a firm position. We want an agreement on the financial perspectives for political reasons as a positive signal must be sent to European citizens. This would be the case with such an agreement as this would mean that Europe is working properly and meeting the needs of citizens. But we also need the agreement for technical reasons, for setting up legal instruments and multi-annual programmes. It takes 18 months to establish an effective policy (…) An agreement is needed so that everything is ready for 2007!”.
Nicolas Schmit restated the wish of the Luxembourg EU Council Presidency that an agreement should be reached in June on the financial framework for 2007-2013, saying that the elected representatives of citizens are the best qualified to influence the Heads of State and Government. “The Committee of the Regions is the voice of Europe. It is the translation of regional democracy which fashions the image of our Union. One must also listen to what the European Parliament has to say, in general, on the financial perspectives and, above all, on cohesion policy issues”, Schmit stressed. “If Europe is not able to reach an agreement on the financial perspectives, then the message to citizens will be negative”, Mr Schmit pointed out, repeating that “any political agreement in June should be comprehensive, exhaustive and complete”.
Postponement of the decision on the EU's financial framework for 2007-2013 in June this year could delay the beginning of the new Structural Funds programming period, the chairman of the Committee of the Regions' commission on territorial cohesion policy, Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, noted. He felt that this could not fail to provoke financial dysfunction and other upheavals in the regions concerned. There must be a “good decision in time to allow Europe to pursue an ambitious and united cohesion policy”, he said, warning that minimalist cohesion would be harmful at the: 1) economic level, by causing a reduction in intra-Community trade among other things; 2) social level, as it is not with less cohesion that the regional disparities will disappear and that unemployment or social distress will regress; and 3) political level, mainly when it comes to visibility and European legitimacy for citizens. The chairman of the regional development committee at the European Parliament, Gerardo Galeote Quecedo stressed that the results of negotiations on the financial perspectives must comply with the principles of fair distribution of the costs of enlargement and a guarantee that any loss in subsidies will be gradual.