Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-13-Speech-1-152-000"
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"en.20120213.19.1-152-000"2
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"Madam President, Ms Hübner, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for asking this question, which has given me a good opportunity to demonstrate how much growth potential there is in regional policy. I would like to point out that regional policy, by definition, has always been targeted at growth and that will still be the case in the future.
In times like these, it is even more necessary than ever that we make huge investments in growth. Europe needs growth. It is very important that we strive here to head off what some experts have described as a minor potential recession. It is absolutely essential that we tackle two issues, in particular: the first is promoting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the second is tackling extremely high youth unemployment in some countries which, in some age cohorts, amounts to as much as 50%. We need to support both these areas, as they are mutually interdependent.
Let me give you a simple sample calculation: we have 23 million SMEs in Europe and some 23 million unemployed. To put it in simple terms, if we were able to persuade each SME to take on an additional unemployed person, man or woman, the problem of unemployment would be cured. For that reason, the informal European Council of 30 January has very rightly said that we need even greater and more targeted efforts in the coming years to promote the competitiveness of our companies and, thus, ensure growth for Europe. There can be no long-term stability without equivalent qualitative and quantitative growth.
The Heads of State or Government have therefore proposed that we review once again those Structural Fund resources that have not yet been allocated to specific projects – EUR 22 billion from the European Social Fund (ESF) and around EUR 60 billion from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) or the Cohesion Fund, to be exact – in order to ensure the optimal utilisation of growth potentials. Although it is true that, in principle, these resources have been allocated to programmes, they have not been allocated to specific projects yet. Therefore, it would certainly be a legitimate approach to say: let us look at whether we can once again improve the funding structure.
The Commission has offered to use all the expertise available to us to help, in particular, those countries where youth unemployment is at its highest. It must be permissible to exhaust all the possibilities in such critical cases. We are at your disposal. We have offered this to Member States and they have accepted the offer. We will hold very specific discussions in the coming weeks and months and they are starting in early March. However, it is up to Member States to ultimately adapt and tighten their programmes and align them with the objective of tackling youth unemployment and promoting SMEs.
Against this background, I am grateful to the European Parliament for its support in enabling accelerated action which, on the one hand, serves the promotion of SMEs and, on the other, has made it possible for the cofinancing rate to be increased, which will ultimately allow us to overcome liquidity bottlenecks here and there and implement, complete or finish projects. We stand ready, if need be, to adjust or adapt programmes – as we already do, day in, day out – if requested by Member States. The willingness of the Commission is there. However, I would also ask Members of the European Parliament to contribute, within your capabilities and remits, to the project of tackling youth unemployment and promoting SMEs."@en1
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