Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-24-Speech-2-010"
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"en.20090324.3.2-010"2
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"Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to present briefly the report on the urban dimension of cohesion policy. It is a report which examines options and the involvement of cities in the management and use of European money in the current programming period. It is a report which at the same time provides guidance and offers inspiration on how to adapt the Structural Funds rules so that they better suit the needs of European cities and metropolises. In drafting the report I have relied not only on scientific studies and expert opinions from interest groups such as the European Council of Municipalities and Regions and EUROCITIES, but above all on the direct experience and opinions of mayors, councillors, town hall officials, project managers and everyone else concerned with European funds. One of the inspiring meetings providing us with an opportunity for joint discussions on the urban dimension was an event entitled European Urban Day, which I organised together with partners at the beginning of February in Prague within the framework of the Czech Presidency of the EU. I would like at this point once again to thank Commissioner Hübner, Mr Svoboda and my colleagues Mr Olbrycht, Mr Beaupuy and Mrs Kallenbach for their participation and their active approach.
It is logical that our attention is focused on cities. Cities are home to 80% of the 500 million or so inhabitants of the EU. It is in cities that the great majority of jobs, companies and centres of education are located. Cities generate more than 70% of Europe’s VAT. Cities therefore constitute a definite driving force for the economic growth of the whole of Europe, which makes them all the more important in a time of crisis. However, many cities are facing a range of serious problems. Cities and urban areas therefore need special attention within the framework of the cohesion policy.
I would like to emphasise two main ideas from the text of the report. The first is the question of sub-delegation, which means transferring control of European resources to cities. Although European legislation already permits the sub-delegation of resources to cities so that they can allocate them when creating integrated development plans, Member States have made only marginal use of this option. One of the main aims of this report is to support the role of cities in the cohesion process. We must stop regarding cities merely as final recipients and instead view them as entities that administer territories. Just as regions and national civil service bodies hold their own budgets, cities must gain greater responsibility in the area of structural assistance for programming and distributing Structural Funds. The urban dimension must become mandatory.
The second fundamental idea is to really exploit the potential of the financial instrument JESSICA. Cohesion policy has hitherto been based exclusively on a system of subsidies, or in other words, non-returnable grants. The organisations and individuals submitting projects are therefore used to a situation where they receive European money and national budget resources earmarked for cofinancing ‘free of charge’. The priority is often drawdown itself rather than an effective investment or an evaluation of available resources. Therefore the subsidy principle sometimes leads to a situation where some of the structural assistance is not used efficiently. In the current programming period we have seen JESSICA implemented to create space for a systematic amendment of the cohesion policy. However, the fact is that not much use has been made of the space. This must change in the next programming period. European policy should make more use of options relating to the use of financial engineering funds such as revolving funds. That is all for now. I would like to thank everyone who assisted me in drafting this report."@en1
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