Risk of decline of the European budget. Cohesion policy in the hot seat

Member States in northern Europe want to lower the rate which allows a budget to be allocated to Europe for the period 2021-2027. It is the aid of the cohesion policy in the regions that would win.

Are we going towards a European budget cut by a few billion? Germany, Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark have requested that the EU budget be no more than 1% of the gross national income of the 27 Member States (post-Brexit) . The 2021-2027 budget proposed last May by the Commission corresponds to 1.11% of the gross national income of the EU27. This is 1,279 billion euros less.

This proposal introduces a 10% reduction in the funding of the Cohesion Policy. The Finnish Presidency of the EU Council would even target a budget of 1.06% of the EU's gross national income to 27. This would imply reductions of 60 to 70 billion euros, further cuts that would weigh on the political cohesion (around 25 billion euros) ...

Cohesion policy? It is an essential contribution for the Regions! For example, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund allocated 491 million euros to Brittany for the period 2014-2020,

So that we were talking hard this week in Brussels: the Committee on Regional Development (REGI) of the European Parliament and the Committee on Territorial Cohesion Policy and Budget of the EU (COTER) of the Committee of the Regions met the Commissioner Johannes Hahn, currently Commissioner for Regional Policy and, above all, the next European Commissioner for the Budget.

No fool's game

For Commissioner Johannes Hahn, no game of fools when he addresses elected representatives of the Committee of the Regions : "I hear that if Europe fails, Member States would complete! But, I have never seen that done. Above all, do not ask for a lower rate ( than the one proposed by the Commission) as this will never be compensated by the states. We need enough money to implement our policies. Parliament and the European Committee of the Regions are asking for a budget of 1.3% of gross national income.

There is therefore an alliance with the Commission. Younous Omarjee, LFI MEP, who chairs the REGI committee, and Isabelle Boudineau, vice-president of New Aquitaine and president of COTER, take the lead: "It is important that the Regions play a role of pressure against the States. We are in concrete battles to save the EU's regional policy. We must make the European Council understand reason. We are counting on the millions of companies that have benefited from ERDF aid, the millions of Europeans who have obtained employment with Cohesion funds, the millions and millions of European citizens committed to the implementation of solidarity. "

Younous Omarjee, LFI MEP who chairs the REGI Committee, and Isabelle Boudineau, Vice President of New Aquitaine and President of COTER | WEST FRANCE

"This government renationalizes"

Parliament and the Committee of the Regions follow the same line. "If we cut in the policy of Cohesion, we give the victory to eurosceptics and Europhobes. They ask President Macron to defend cohesion policy "with the same energy that France is defending the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Investments in our regions depend on European funds. "

The example of the CAP may seem paradoxical in the case of France. Indeed Paris has just regained control over a large part of the CAP aid that was distributed by the Regions ... "It's absolutely regrettable," squeak Younous Omarjee and Isabelle Boudineau. "The state has just renationalized two-thirds of the EAFRD. While the regions had saved the Leader program, because the state no longer had the engineering to do it. It is a historical retreat and a measure of distrust vis-à-vis local authorities. This government is renationalizing European policies. "

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