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Committee of the Regions calls for EU budget reform to make European added value clearly visible to public
10.04.2008, 09:48
Committee of the Regions President Luc Van den Brande and First Vice-President Michel Delebarre have called on the EU to look at new ways of financing itself so that it can respond effectively to future challenges, guarantee territorial cohesion and reinforce its democratic pact of trust with the public.
They say that a new financing system which has "as few exemptions as possible" and that can adapt the major European objectives to specific local needs has to be agreed.
"The objective of the European budget review is clear: equipping Europe with financial instruments appropriate to its political, economic, social and territorial prospects and with a simple and transparent system which makes European added value clearly visible to the general public," the two leaders state in an own-initiative opinion adopted by the Committee's plenary assembly in Brussels today, 9 April.
"It is imperative to maintain a strong political and economic framework, with sufficient resources in the medium to long term, in order to be able to give expression to the collective will to achieve the goals which have been set. The EU budget review must serve primarily to reinforce the democratic pact of trust which binds the people to the Union," the report adds.
Mr Van den Brande, a Belgian senator and member of the Flemish Parliament, and Mr Delebarre, Mayor and MP for Dunkirk, France, presented the joint opinion in response to consultation by the European Commission on the 2008-2009 EU budget review.
The Committee of the Regions is the first institution to formally react to the consultation.
The opinion calls, among other things, for:
- A more flexible budgetary programming period (5 + 5 years) based on the European electoral timetable (funding for the first five years would be fully allocated and amounts kept in reserve, for example 25%, could be reassigned, on the basis of a mid-term review, to launch new initiatives or reinforce those policies which have the greatest need);
- Effective support for least-developed regions to catch up and improve their competitiveness, to ensure a more balanced economic, social and territorial development throughout the EU;
- A budget which reflects the expansion of the EU's responsibilities foreseen under the Lisbon Reform Treaty and reverses the recent trend which has seen the budget shrink significantly to below 1% of the EU's total GDP;
- To avoid renationalisation of policies financed by the Union which could result in insufficient or ineffective responses and a loss of the leverage effect which the EU funding brings by multiplying the impact of measures;
- A transparent communication policy to better inform the public how their money is being used.
The opinion notes that the Lisbon Treaty's new territorial cohesion objective gives impetus to the process of designing and implementing EU policies on a "territorial basis". It urges the Union to exploit the "full potential of multi-level governance" by ensuring that the participation of regional and local authorities in the shaping and implementation of European policies is at the heart of the budget review strategy.
It underlines that the budget must reinforce an EU model for prosperity and cohesion that recognises the importance of preserving identity and promotes participation and democracy at local and regional level. "The challenge of the budget review is to allow this economic and social model to progress, avoiding the dismantling of its foundations and drawing more on Europe's territorial wealth and its diversity, including cultural diversity, in the interests of its cohesion," it concludes.
Source: www.cor.eu