PURPOSE: to define the objectives and scope of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF) for the period 2021-2017.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: for the next multiannual financial framework covering the period 2021-2017, the Commission proposes to modernise cohesion policy to help redress imbalances within and between Member States.
Based on the evidence that the applicable rules were overly complex and fragmented between the different funds and the various forms of financing, the Commission proposed to establish a single rulebook for seven EU funds implemented under shared management in order to simplify access to and use of EU Funds (Common Provisions Regulation - CPR).
The aims of the ERDF is to help to redress the main regional imbalances in the Union through participation in the development and structural adjustment of regions whose development is lagging behind and in the conversion of declining industrial regions.
The Cohesion Fund contributes financially to projects in the field of the environment and trans-European transport infrastructure networks. In many countries, the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund represent at least 50% of public investment - these Member States would not otherwise have the financial capacity to make such investments. There is considerable potential for spill-over effects across national and regional borders, for example in terms of investment in innovation and SMEs.
CONTENT: the proposal for a Regulation - presented for a Union of 27 Member States - sets out the provisions applicable to both ERDF and Cohesion Fund intervening under the ‘Investment for jobs and growth’ goal and, with regard to the ERDF, under the ‘European territorial cooperation’ goal (Interreg).
Objectives for ERDF and Cohesion Fund: the ERDF shall support the achievement of the following policy objectives (PO):
The Cohesion Fund shall support PO 2 and specific objectives under PO 3 in particular the development of a sustainable, climate resilient, intelligent, secure and intermodal TEN-T as well as promoting sustainable multimodal urban mobility.
Operations under the ERDF are expected to contribute 30 % of the overall financial envelope of the ERDF to climate objectives (37% under the Cohesion Fund).
Landfills, airport infrastructure, the tobacco industry, decommissioning of nuclear facilities shall not be supported by the funds.
This thematic concentration shall be attained at national level, with some flexibility at the level of individual programmes and between the three groups of Member States formed according to their gross national income.
Scope of the funds:
Indicators: in order to ensure consistent monitoring of progress achieved, the proposed Regulation refines the common set of output indicators, while adding for the first time a common set of results indicators. These latter enable reporting results in real time on the Open Data Platform and comparison across programmes and Member States. Evaluations will include lessons learned, problems and opportunities to further improve the actions and their impacts.
Specific territorial factors: the proposal provides for an increased focus on sustainable urban development by dedicating 6% of ERDF resources to this area, delivered through territorial instruments. It also provides for the setting up of a European Urban Initiative to be managed by the Commission.
The proposal also sets out special measures to accommodate the specific situation of outermost regions. These include schemes to offset transport costs and investments.
Proposed overall budget: the Commission proposal for a multiannual financial framework provides for an envelope of EUR 273 billion for the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund for the period 2021-2027, of which: (i) ERDF: EUR 200.62 billion and; (ii) Cohesion Fund: EUR 41.34 billion.