Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-01-18-Speech-2-546-000"
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"en.20110118.21.2-546-000"2
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"Mr President, the Commission welcomes the Financial Times’s scrutiny as it represents an important contribution to opening and broadening public debate about the efficiency and effectiveness of cohesion policy.
The Commission is aware of the habitually slower take-up at the beginning of a programming period. However, the most recent data show that the Commission made more cohesion policy payments in the fourth quarter of 2010 than ever before. The vast majority of the payments made were interim payments, i.e. reimbursements of expenditure already made and certified in the Member States. Thus, it is certain that, as has been seen in previous programming periods, cohesion policy spending is accelerating. Absorption rates, in terms of EU payments to Member States, are now at 21% for the Cohesion Fund, 22% for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and 23% for the European Social Fund (ESF).
As regards support provided to multinational and large companies, the Commission would emphasise that a primary objective of cohesion policy is growth and the creation of new jobs for particular regions and Member States. Any support for productive investment has to be seen in that context.
Promoting job creation and economic growth can be achieved in many ways, from setting up small enterprises to supporting larger companies. Cohesion policy intervention supports productive investment that is primarily targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises, as specified by the ERDF and ESF regulations. The Commission also stressed the role of small and medium-sized enterprises during negotiation of the current programming documents. The vast majority of productive investment and investment in the development of endogenous potential is targeted at SMEs. However, there may be cases where, in line with the regulations, cofinancing is granted to larger companies subject to compliance with the objectives of the funds and programmes concerned.
In total, cohesion policy has allocated some EUR 55 billion to business support between 2007 and 2013, a large share of which supports innovation in SMEs. The Commission would like to point out that multinationals are not beneficiaries of the support extended by the ESF. Workers receive the cofinanced training. The ESF supports people. It is about providing training and retraining and improving skills to prepare people and help them find a job. A worker who has been employed in a given enterprise may well then find himself or herself engaged in another company. Therefore, what matters is the skill capital that workers manage to build to sustain their inclusion in the labour market, not the name or type of enterprises providing the training.
The Commission considers that, from a policy perspective, firms should not receive European funding for investments which would lead to the loss of employment by the same company in another region of the European Union, because the net effect of the ESF investment might be zero or even negative. In cases where a company which has received cohesion policy support closes down, or ceases to support a project, within five years – or three years in the case of SMEs – this funding needs to be paid back.
My final point – but it is a crucial one – is that while there are clearly areas for improvement, this cannot and should not overshadow the major positive impact that cohesion policy is having. I would like to assure you that the Commission is not shying away from the problems. Indeed, in the past, we have proposed changes, some of which were taken up, and we will continue to drive improvement of cohesion policy. Cohesion policy brings clear benefits to the poorer regions of the European Union, but it also clearly benefits the rest of Europe."@en1
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