Cohesion policy in the news
(30/11/2010)
EU cohesion policy has been making the headlines in recent days. This kind of reporting and scrutiny provides a welcome contribution to the discussions and reflections on the future policy after 2013. It also helps people understand how the policy works in practice - both in terms of the challenges it faces and the opportunities it provides. EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Johannes Hahn, made a statement on 30 November clarifying a number of issues:
- The funds of cohesion policy are not lying idle under red tape. The EU Member States, regions and cities are working on a daily basis with these funds. In many regions, the funding under Cohesion policy is the most important steady stream of investment available to create economic growth and jobs.
- Cohesion policy brings obvious benefits to the poorer regions of the EU, but is also benefiting the rest of Europe. There is a clear link between cohesion policy and the Single Market. Cohesion policy supports regions that are lagging behind to participate in the internal market. GDP in the EU has been 0.7% higher in 2009 thanks to cohesion policy.
- The slow take-up of funds at the beginning of a period is nothing new. Until the end of 2009, the Member States were spending funds from the previous period or from national or EU recovery plans, instead of cohesion policy. Because very often, funding from recovery plans has been available only during a short period.
- Only a small part of cohesion funding is affected by irregularities and fraud. We succeeded to bring down the error rate by more than half in 2009 to slightly above 5% and will certainly continue our efforts in this direction. This is also why I am here today in the Parliament's Budgetary Committee. Suspected fraud covers only a small part of the error rate.
- Together with my colleague László Andor, I have presented on 9 November the blueprint for a reform of cohesion policy that will further increase the effectiveness of the policy: more result-orientation, more concentration on priority areas, simpler rules. This will also address the issues raised in the press.
Some of the points raised in the reports were also addressed in the Commission's press briefing