Strasbourg, 07/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has sent out a very strong signal to the citizens of Europe and to the Council, with its adoption, at the plenary of 6 July, of five reports on the reform of the cohesion policy for 2007-2013 (EUROPE 8957), by very clear majorities: Konstantinos Hadzidakis (EPP-ED, Greece) on the general provisions pertaining to the ERDF, ESF and the cohesion fund; Alfonso Andria (ALDE, Italy) on the cohesion fund; Claudio Fava (PES, Italy) on the Regional Development Fund; José Silva Peneda (EPP-ED, Portugal) on the European Social Fund; Jan Olbrycht (EPP-ED, Poland) on the European Grouping of Cross-Border Cooperation. With these votes, the Parliament wishes to show that the EU is capable of going about its business notwithstanding the lack of agreement in the Council on the financial perspectives, and undertakes to defend the cohesion policy in all negotiations, calling for the rejection of any attempt to carry out drastic cuts in community expenditure. "We intend to negotiate hard and defend our position", said Konstantinos Hadzidakis, at a joint press conference in Strasbourg. Speaking on behalf of the Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Minister for Trade and Industry, Alun Michael, made it clear that the UK Presidency attaches great importance to the partnership between the Council and the EP, and that its objective was to reach "a consensus on the technical issues of the regulations". He highlighted the need to improve the effectiveness of the structural funds and welcomed the excellent collaboration with the European Parliament in implementing a quality cohesion policy tailor-made for the Europe of the 21st century. "We all want a dynamic regional policy, which is capable of guaranteeing the success of enlargement", he said, referring to future negotiations.
In its adoption of the Hadzakis report, the Parliament reject any significant modification to the architecture proposed by the Commission, preventing, for example, any attempt by the Council to renationalise the regional policy, or to weaken the principle of partnership. The Commissioner for Social Affairs, Vladimir Spidla, reiterated during the debate that he was "in favour of the principle of partnership". The parliamentarians repeated their plea to devote 0.14% of Community GNI, or 336 billion EUR, to the cohesion policy for 2007-2013, and urge the Council to reach agreement on the financial perspectives before the end of 2005, in order to give the regions and the Member States sufficient time to prepare for the forthcoming programming period. "The structural funds are financial instruments which are vital for the future of competitiveness", explained Nathalie Griesbeck (ALDE, France), the permanent rapporteur on structural funds for the committee on budgets, during the debate. Amongst other things, the EP proposes that the "N+2" principle be kept. "We need an acceptable degree of flexibility. Further to the enlargement of the EU, the 'N+2' principle will start on day one of the implementation of the programme, not of the Commission's programming period", Ms Griesbeck added. The Parliament calls for the "statistical effect" regions to be financed to the level of 85% of the resources made available to the regions in full convergence, and that this percentage be dropped to 60% by 2013. The proposal to impose financial penalties on companies which decide to delocalise after having received European funding is "indispensable", in the view of Margie Sudre (EPP-ED, France) who, as a regional adviser for La Reunion, welcomes the allocation of a special fund of 1.1 billion EUR in favour of extremely remote regions. The Commissioner in charge of Regional Policy, Danuta Hübner, expressed her agreement with the amendments pertaining to such issues as basing the structural fund policy around the objectives of competitiveness, regional development and convergence, and the various actions to plug the gaps in the poorest regions of all. However, "the battle is far from won, because we also need the financial resources", the Commissioner added. Ms Hübner stressed the importance of territorial cohesion for the cities ("the URBAN programme is a success story", she pointed out, of reinforcing the cohesion policy via better corporation between ERDF and the other Funds, and of reinforcing inter-regional cooperation in order to improve territorial cooperation.
"We have really moved things forward", said Alfonso Andria, who was tasked with drawing up the interim report establishing the priorities of the Parliament ahead of its final vote on its assent to the Cohesion Fund (article 75 of the Parliament regulation). Expressing the hope that Europe will have the resources to put its ambitions into practice, he feels that it is "telling that the Parliament supported my proposal to triple the resources of the Cohesion Fund, to 62.99 billion EUR", instead of the 18 billion for the previous period, and considers that "the regional policy is the best instrument at our disposable to bring the citizens closer to Europe". The Parliament took position in favour of a more balanced share-out of the money between the sectors of the environment and of transport infrastructures, and for greater flexibility in terms of intervention.
On the other hand, however, he opposed the introduction of an interim mechanism to phase out aid granted to the Member States hit by the statistical effect, further to enlargement. Lastly, the Parliament calls for an explicit reference to people living with disabilities, and for the specific characteristics of the remote regions and island areas of the Member States which are eligible for the cohesion fund, but which suffer from natural and demographic disadvantages, to be taken into account.
Despite the insistence of various MEPs, in its adoption at first reading of the Fava report, the Parliament decided that VAT will not be eligible for participation in the ERDF, unlike the expenditure for renovating social housing carried out in order to save energy and to safeguard the environment. The MEPs decided to extend the scope of the regulation to urban, rural, mountainous, remote or cross-border areas as well as to those suffering from a serious natural or demographic disadvantage or areas which are dependent on fishing. With a view to reducing the digital divide by use of the ERDF, the MEPs propose to allocate funds to allow better access to information and communication technology for small companies, and to set up action plans in favour of very small companies. "Solidarity, efficiency and services should obey the Lisbon Strategy", said Evelyne Bachelot (EPP-ED, France). "My wish is that we reach a consensus on the reports of today, similar to that obtained on the Böge report. It is important for the EP to stick to the difficult course it has set itself of the Community's ambitions", she added at the debate which preceded the vote.
During the presentation of his report on the regulation on the European Social Fund (ESF), José Silva Peneda called upon the MEPs to support two amendments to the Commission's text: the first on social inclusion, the second on the distinction between the actions the ESF can develop in the regions under the "convergence" and the "competitiveness and regional employment" objectives. The Silva Peneda report proposes to support innovative projects, and more specifically to reinforce trans-national competition. "Differences of opinion exist between the Commission and the Council on the status of this trans-national cooperation", said the rapporteur, indicating that he " shares the point of view of the Commission on this". The report also suggests that the ESF could develop information and awareness-raising measures for the general public, to step up the fight against discrimination and inequality of treatment, which would allow the Member States to tell the population in general and parties concerned about projects which are eligible for the ESF. Maria Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou (EPP-ED, Greece) welcomed the fact that many recommendations of the committee on women had been taken up by the Peneda report, such as the removal of all forms of discrimination, and on accessibility for people living with disabilities. Jan Andersson (PES, Sweden) felt that it is very important, in view of globalisation and the problem of employment, for the ESF to help to promote competitiveness and the European social model. Commissioner Spidla, for his part, said that the Commission wanted "NGOs to have access to activities paid for by the ESF".
Lastly, the Parliament gave its blessing to the creation of a new legal instrument, the European Grouping of Cross-Border Cooperation (EGCC), the aim of which would be to find solutions to administrative, legal or other problems related to the management of cross-border programs. These groups would be governed by a convention concluded between the national, regional and local authorities and other participants, and would be financed by the EU. Although the European Commission is proposing to allocate 14.3 billion EUR to this proposed cross-border cooperation, rapporteur Jan Olbrycht acknowledged that the adoption of the EGCC was not yet a done deal. At this stage, "the Parliament has clarified things from a terminological point of view, by stating its preference for the name 'European Grouping of Territorial Cohesion', but the second reading could be difficult because many of the Member States do not agree with this instrument", he said. The Commissioner for Regional Policy, Danuta Hübner, said that she accepted the EP's amendments to the report, with the exception of those aiming to extend the objectives, such as competitiveness. "It is not out of a lack of sympathy, but we must concentrate on the major challenges, otherwise we run the risk of missing what is really essential. We need to find an appropriate balance", she explained.
"A body without a heart is dead. That is what I have to say to the UK Presidency of the Council of the EU", said Elisabeth Schroedter (Greens/EFA, Germany), ahead of the negotiations with the Council. "The structural funds should be organised like a heart in a body; the body is in good health as long as all is well. We must use resources fairly, based on a bottom-up approach to help the weakest. I insist that the structural funds should be allocated at a high enough level. They must make Europe visible and tangible for the citizens", she explained.