Should regional policy still get one-third of the EU budget after 2013? Will it remain one of the Union’s preferred ways to achieve its economic and development goals?
These questions are set to dominate next week’s Open Days in Brussels, where 6,000 regional stakeholders and policymakers will gather to discuss the policy’s future.
Many leading regional policy players fear a reduction in funding from 2014, when the EU's next seven-year budget framework will start to apply. They have been increasingly vocal in defending the policy’s role.
In an interview with EurActiv.pl, Polish MEP Danuta Hübner, former European Commissioner for Regional Policy and current Regional Development Committee Chair of the European Parliament, explained that she hopes that high-profile backers, such as herself, "will successfully defend regional policy".
In the European Parliament, Hübner has been battling to strengthen recognition of the policy among MEPs "and build support for it". In her opinion, some member states, "notably the UK and the Netherlands, and to a lesser extent Sweden" have "objected to the very existence of regional policy".
Contrastingly, argued Hübner, "Germany, despite being the largest net contributor to the EU budget, has a very positive attitude towards cohesion policy and regional policy".
Will Objective 2 regions be left out in the cold?
The former commissioner believes the reformed post-2013 policy should maintain its current share (one third) of the EU budget, and should strive to provide appropriate funding for all regions, not only the poorest regions.
Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn appears to be singing from the same hymn sheet. A recent draft of the long-awaited fifth Cohesion Report on economic, social and territorial cohesion, scheduled for publication in November and seen in advance by EurActiv, reaffirms the EU executive’s policy of supporting transition regions.
However, this could change between now and November, as budget discussions continue in Brussels. As a result, EU regions, worried that such an about-turn could occur, are making their voices heard.
The State Government of Lower Austria has been leading the way, collecting 141 signatures from leaders of so-called RCE regions (Regional Competitiveness and Employment, or "Objective" 2) - areas close to the EU GDP average which face particular development obstacles - urging EU leaders to protect their status.
Ilse Penders-Stadlmann, head of the State Government of Lower Austria’s Brussels office, told EurActiv that 85% of all RCE regions had signed the letter. "It underlines the political importance of cohesion policy to the regions," she noted.
This position was echoed by Robert Collins, head of the Irish Regions Office in Brussels, who told EurActiv that "our concern is that Cohesion Policy post 2013 will be restricted to the very poorest regions with little consideration given to the uneven impacts that the current economic crisis is having across the EU".
He added that "our regions continue to experience negative growth and face serious economic and unemployment challenges, which if the Objective 2 (Competitiveness and Employment ) strand is not continued will leave regions, such as the Irish regions, without support from Cohesion Policy as a time when they may need it most".
