Marshal Władysław Ortyl addressing Vice-President of the European Commission
centrate on priority areas: security, migration and youth unemployment. This was in line with Rob Jonkman’s (Alderman in Opsterland, Netherlands) call for rebuilding trust for the EU by investing in civic empowerment and taking decisions at
a level that is closest to citizens. “Many Europeans feel today that the EU is too remote. As a result support for the EU is low in many Member States, in fact even lower than in the United Kingdom, which decided to leave the Union. We must rebuild this trust by bringing the EU as close as possible to our local communities. This could be achieved through European localism. The EU should refrain from regulating on issues that can be addressed at local or regional level”. The ECR President’s message was reinforced by Władysław Ortyl (Marshal of the Podkarpackie region in Poland) who addressed Commissioner Katainen and called on the European Commission to listen more to the citizens and focus on issues which benefit all Member States.
“In February this year we co-organised with the European Committee of the Regions a citizen’s debate in my region Podkarpackie in Poland. The event was attended by Prime Minister Beata Szydło and CoR President Markku Markkula, but above all the purpose of the meeting was to listen to our citizens and to pass their comments to EU institutions. One of the main messages the citizens wanted us to take to Brussels is that we should not be afraid to reform the EU and to concentrate on selected policies which bring benefits to all, such as deepening of the Single Market, flexible regional policy and building resilience to natural disasters”.
What future for EU Cohesion Policy post 2020? - By Dr Pavel Branda and Oldřich Vlasák, ECR Group Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator in the Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy As we reflect on what kind of a European Union we would like to see in the future, the EUs Cohesion Policy is something that we must focus on. The Cohesion Policy is an important instrument of solidarity providing support to less developed regions to help ensure the benefits of the EUs Single Market are distributed throughout Europe. It brings clear Europe added-value but it is not working as well as it should and is therefore in need of reform. our Group supports scenario four. As part of a more efficient EU, we need a continued yet reformed EU Cohesion Policy.
ECR Group Member Pavel Branda
On 1 March 2017 the European Commission presented its famous “White Paper on the Future of Europe”, in which it outlined five scenarios for the European Union: (1) “Carrying on”; (2) “Nothing but the Single Market”; (3) “Those who want more do more”; (4) “Doing less more efficiently”; and (5) “Doing much more together”. The EU does need to focus more on areas where action at the EU level brings more added-value than action at local, regional or national levels. For this reason,
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Firstly, let us look at why we should address this policy area. The EUs Cohesion Policy has one-third of the EU budget dedicated to it and with this aims to achieve more cohesive development in Europe. Yet, the last Cohesion Report concluded that regional disparities had widened meaning the gap between the richest and poorest regions was getting bigger. We must therefore reform the policy area so that it is better able to help us achieve territorial, economic and social cohesion. When discussing the future of this policy area, it is important to remind ourselves about its original purpose. It is a solidarity mechanism as well as being so much more than that. It compensates less developed regions for entering the Single Market in which they find it difficult to compete, hence becoming increasingly dependent on imports. Cohesion instruments help to distribute the benefits of the Single Market more evenly
among all actors so that the positive impact is felt more equally in all parts of Europe. As a tool, even if it has had limited success in helping reduce regional disparities, it has had clear benefits for both the richer and poorer regions. Numerous reports highlight the fact that Cohesion Policy has translated into accelerated social and economic change in less developed parts of Europe. It has also benefited more developed regions and countries. Recent studies show that Cohesion Policy has had a significant macroeconomic impact on the EU-15 (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom). This impact has even been quantified – each euro spent through Cohesion Policy on the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) generated an additional 61 cents in export terms for the EU-15. To help achieve a better functioning Cohesion Policy we need to a stronger bottom-up approach to this policy area. In the EU, we have