Transcript Cohesion Policy 1975-2005 Barcelona, 5 April 2005

Cohesion Policy
1975-2006
What Cohesion in the EU?
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Economic and Social Cohesion: a main Community goal
EU Funds (ERDF, ESF, FEOGA-0, Cohesion…)
1/3 of the total Budget
Redistributive policy (North-South; West-East), but also
distributive
• Multi-level governance approach (cities, regions, state,
EU institutions)
• “Europeanization” of domestic policies: principles,
strategies, ideas, procedures, opportunities for policy
innovation at territorial level
The historical process
5 main phases:
1) 1957-1975
2) 1975-1988
3) 1988-1993
4) 1993-1999
5) 1999-2006
1957-1975
• 1957: No specific provision for a regional policy or fund
• Some references to “territorial or social unbalances,
inequalities or disparities among the regions”
• European Investment Bank
• Public aids forbidden (competition policy)
• 1958: ESF (FSE) and FEOGA (market, rural areas)
• First moves to EMU (European Monetary System)
• 1973: Entry of UK, Ireland and Denmark
• 1975: ERDF (FEDER)
The creation of the ERDF (1975)
• Following a Council in Paris, in December 1974,
a budget of 1.4 billion ECU (then budget's
"currency") was allocated on the basis of
“national quotas” for the years 1975 to 1977 (4%
of the budget) was split between the then 9
Member States
• Member States had to apply for ERDF support
at project level.
• Decisions were taken in a Regional Policy
Committee based on Commission proposals
1976-1985
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Member states bargaining (unanimity)
EP (“non compulsory expenditure”)
A new DG (XVI)
No significant impact on regional
disparities
• 1979-1984: Some incremental reforms +
Community programs (STAR, Telecom,
Resider, etc.), Mediterranean Integrated
Programs
1986-88: Widening and
Deepening (SEA + IM) impacts
Entry of Spain and Portugal
+ 18% population
+ 8% GNP
36% agricultural unemployment
14% industrial unemployment
20% of EC pop under 70% of EC average
(Spain 74,8; Greece 54,4%
Deepening: the 1986 Single
European Act (SEA)
Cohesion in exchange of free market
° 1985: White Paper on the Internal Market (1992
Program)
° New Title V: concern “to strengthen economic and
social cohesion” with the aim of reducing the disparities
between the levels of development of the regions and
the backwardness of the least favored ones
° Direct Treaty base for the ERDF
° A doubling of the structural funds (1989-1993): 25% of
the EC budget
° Negotiating activism (Delors and Kohl) +
intergovernmental bargain (F,UK) and side-payments
(compensations for the SEM)
The Implementation
4 basic principles:
1) concentration (priorities-objectives)
2) partnership: cooperation between the levels of
government at every stage
3) additionality: EU complements
4) programming: common procedures
- CSFs: national/regional development
programs. (90%)
- Community Initiatives (10%)
OBJECTIVES (1989-1999)
1. GDP per capita less than 75% of EU average – 70% of the total (all
funds)
2. Regions affected by industrial decline, unemployment above the
average (eligibility negotiated COM-Council)- ERDF-ESF
3. Combating long-term unemployment
4. (1994-99): adaptation to industrial change (ESF)
5. 5a devoted to agricultural and forestry assistance; 5b aimed at
promoting the development of rural areas (diversification)
6. (after 1995 enlargement): developing sparsely populated Nordic
areas
The 1993 Reform: Cohesion for
EMU
Maastricht: complex intergovernmental bargain
including new cohesion provisions
• Title 1 (art. 1): promoting “economic and social
progress which is balanced and sustainable (…)
through the strengthening of economic and
social cohesion and through the establishment
of EMU”
• Art. 3: “strengthening economic and social
cohesion and development of TENs”
• Art. 158-162: a new Cohesion Fund for countries
with a GNP below 90% of Community average
with a program for fulfilling the EMU criteria
The Implementation
Second-level negotiation: (Spain, Germany, UK,
Com)
Edinburgh summit: doubling of SF (1994-99) from
18.6 billion euros to 30 in 1999 = 1/3 of
Community budget
+ Cohesion Fund (from 1.5 to 2.6 billion in 1999):
Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland
Creation of the Committee of the Regions
(consultative functions including cohesion)
The implementation: new
regulations (94-99)
Some significant changes:
1. New objective 4
2. Horizontal partnership including economic and
social actors
3. Programming: simplification
4. Environmental and SD considerations in
regional policy (ex ante evaluation)
5. 3 Community Initiatives (9% of the total):
LEADER II, INTERREG II, URBAN
The 2000-2006 Reform
• The challenge: how to face cohesion expenditure and
the enlargement without increasing the budget?
• Enlargement: +29% population, +34% territory, -16% EU
GDP; 10 candidates: 30% of EU p.c. average
• Constrains: the German contribution, the UK “check”,
EMU costs, CAP, Commission crisis, Spain threats, etc.
• Freezing of the overall budget at 1.20% of EU GDP
• The preparation: Agenda 2000 (July 1997) = Financial
Perspectives 2000-06
• The outcome (Berlin Summit, March 1999): “providing
something to everybody” or “enlargement without
additional costs”
The Implementation
Funding: 198 billion to SFs; 18 to Cohesion Fund; 45 to
accession countries
3 objectives:
Objective 1: Helping regions whose development is
lagging behind to catch up.
Objective 2: Supporting economic and social conversion in
industrial, rural, urban or fisheries dependent areas
facing structural difficulties.
Objective 3: Modernizing systems of training and
promoting employment (the whole Union except for the
Objective 1 regions).
4 Community initiatives aimed at finding solutions to common problems (6% of
the total)
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Interreg III for the development of cross border, interregional and
transnational cooperation;
URBAN II to support innovative strategies in cities and urban
neighborhoods;
Leader+ to promote rural development initiatives;
EQUAL to combat discrimination in the labour market. The Community
initiatives absorb 5.35 % of the Structural Funds budget.
In addition, programs for innovative actions receive funding to work as
laboratories of ideas for disadvantaged regions.
The Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-accession (ISPA) and the
Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development
(Sapard) complements the Phare programme that has been in existence for
seven years to promote economic and social development and
environmental protection in the applicant countries in central and eastern
Europe.
The preparation of the next
round (2007-2013)
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2000–01 The European Council in Lisbon (March 2000) adopts a strategy
focused on employment and designed to make the Union ‘the most
competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by the
year 2010’.
The Gothenburg Council (June 2001) completed this strategy by linking it
with sustainable development.
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2002 The European Council in Copenhagen (December 2002) leads to an
agreement on the conditions for the accession of 10 new Member States to
the Union .
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2004 (February), the Commission presents its proposals for the reform of
cohesion policy for the period 2007–13: ‘A new partnership for cohesion:
convergence, competitiveness, cooperation’.
On 1st May, accession to the European Union of the 10 new member states
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The Commission proposal
5 regulations:
 A general regulation, which fixes the main objectives
and eligibility rules, for interventions, for programming
and for the management of the funds
 3 regulations, ERDF, ESF and the Cohesion Fund,
which spitulate the arrangements specific to each
fund
 A regulation on groupings for European transborder
cooperation, which creates a new cooperation tool
available to regional and local organisations
3 objectives-priorities
 The convergence of countries (90% of the EU
average) and regions (regional GDP < 75% of
the average) and the regions concerned by the
statistical effect, that is 33% of the population of
the Union (78,54% including transition regions)
 competitiveness and employment: reinforce
attractiveness and ensure that socio-economic
changes are anticipated in other regions, without
Community zoning (17,22%)
 European territorial cooperation: Crossborder, trans-national and inter-regional (3,94%)
Simplification
• 3 funds in place of 6: ERDF, Cohesion Fund, ESF
• A single fund by program
• Integration of projects of the Cohesion Fund in multi-annual
programming
• Identical management rules for the Cohesion Fund and the
Structural Funds
• Programming and financial management by priority and no longer by
measure
• National eligibility rules for expenditures and no longer
Community rules
Problems
• Who is going to pay? Financial
Perspectives (2007-2013)
- EU Council bargaining
- Council/EP bargaining
• Transition arrangements for present
Cohesion countries-regions
Cohesion policy and Multi-level
Governance
• The UE is a new political order (Post-national, Postmodern, etc.)
• The central governments are no longer the only actors
(EU, regions, cities, private interests)
• EU integration = a new window of opportunities
(incentives, ideas, concepts, representation channels)
which challenges the domestic distribution of power
• Commission activism (problem-solving strategies)
• European governance: interaction among actors and
levels (dispersion of power)
• Network governance is prevailing in the EU
MLG and Europeanization
• Euro-integration and regionalism: new
actors in the EU arena
• Regions without legal representation at the
EU level
• Cooperative governance:
a) public private partnership (horizontal)
b) multilevel governance (vertical)