Brussels/Rome, 26/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - At the extraordinary plenary session which it held in Rome on 22-23 March as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for the Treaties of Rome, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) unanimously adopted the opinion of the president of the government of the Community of Andalusia (Spain), Socialist Manuel Chaves Gonzalez, entitled “The Leverage Effect of the Structural Funds”, in the presence of the commissioner for regional policy, Danuta Hübner, and under the chairmanship of Michel Delebarre, Mayor of Dunkirk and President of the CoR.
This opinion raises the issue of the cohesion policy and its effects on the life of the regions via the structural funds, the rapporteur indicated when presenting his opinion to the plenary. Thanks to the cohesion policies, many of the new member states can refer to Spain “because we are a concrete example demonstrating that cohesion policy works in favour of the most needy and also reinforces the EU, allowing it to grow”, said Mr Chaves, pointing out that “the cohesion policy has no other object than to improve the lot of the citizens of Europe”. Without the leverage of this economic, social and cultural development, none of this could have been achieved, Mr Chaves continued, explaining that the leverage effect means “more health, more education, more economic growth, more and better jobs, more opportunities for all, more rights for all”. Stating that this opinion comes “at a delicate point in time, when the cohesion policies and their creation has been called into question” (two new states are soon to join the EU and increase its inequalities, the rapporteur noted), it nonetheless constitutes “one further effort to make the new Europe prevail in this new society”. He concluded by presenting his own convictions: “(1) we need a Europe with a strong political identity and economic, social and territorial cohesion rather than a Europe which is nothing more than an extended marketplace; (2) we must guard against nationalistic reflexes, because no member state can make progress on its own; (3) Europe will fail if the European Constitution is not as close to the citizens as it possibly can be”. He finished by saying that “the cohesion policies are indispensable. And, in this context, the Lisbon Strategy will remain an essential frame of reference”.
This report is extremely important given our timescale, added Commissioner Danuta Hübner: the Commission is to adopt a report on the cohesion policy at the end of May and will hold a Cohesion Forum in September. This report will feed into the reflection on the future of the policy to be followed in this area. Commenting on the Chaves report, Ms Hübner noted the following on the financial implications of the leverage effect: “for every euro spent by the EU on cohesion policies in the regions under Objective 1 (convergence, growth, employment), this leads to further expenditure to an average total of 0.90 euro. For the Objective 2 regions (regional competitiveness and employment), this additional expenditure comes to an average of three euros for every euro invested”. In the commissioner's view, “we must not take these figures lightly, particularly in the framework of the Lisbon strategy. We have noted”, she added, “that the failure of the Lisbon strategy was not down to the local and regional authorities not taking ownership of the strategy. The cause is the reduction in public investment”. The investments must be carefully and painstakingly planned at all levels, the report stresses, adding that “the cohesion policy plays a major part in bringing together regional and national priorities in order to create synergy at European level. Any European investment strategy must be accompanied by adequate national and regional strategies, which are designed to promote quality state investments in fields related to the Lisbon strategy (innovation and research, knowledge, education, social services etc). “There is one effect which can be put down to the cohesion policy: the European policy adds to the regional policies”, the commissioner noted. Lastly, more frequent use of the public-private partnership model could be an adequate alternative to a direct increase in public investments. (gb)