Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-07-05-Speech-2-186"
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"en.20050705.26.2-186"2
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"Ladies and gentlemen, in listening to the debate so far I have been struck by the fact that we clearly all agree on one point, namely that the aim of cohesion policy is to ensure the balanced development of all the regions in the individual Member States. As such, it complies with the principle of solidarity, which is one of the founding pillars of the European Union. In my opinion, if we are to continue adhering to this principle following the recent enlargement, when 10 new Member States joined the EU, it is imperative that we adopt two key proposed amendments during tomorrow’s vote on the Structural Funds.
Firstly, we should agree to the funding of non-recoverable VAT under the Structural Funds, and in particular under the European Regional Development Fund. Classing non-recoverable VAT as non-eligible expenditure would make it a great deal more difficult for many recipients to obtain funding. My fear is that it might become entirely impossible to gain access to EU funding, in particular in the case of smaller applicants from the 10 new and less wealthy Member States.
Secondly, we should remove the automatic decommitment rule, or in other words the n+2 rule, from the guidelines for implementation of the Cohesion Fund, or at the very least provide for greater flexibility during the first few years of the programming period. Major investment projects in the environment and transport sectors are financed under the Cohesion Fund, and rigorous application of the n+2 rule would pose a serious threat to this financing. Once again, this is particularly true in the case of the 10 new Member States, which still lack experience in implementing the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund."@en1
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